Medfield Traffic Statistics Show Increase in Arrests, Decrease in Citations

Medfield traffic statistics showed dramatic changes in citations issued and regular arrests over a three-year span (2009-2011), according to Medfield Chief of Police Robert E. Meaney Jr.

Citations in 2011 from January to August have dropped 41 percent (395) after rising 217 percent (676) in 2010 from the 213 citations issued in 2009. Meaney said the likely reason for the spike in 2010 and decline in 2011 is the amount of funds used in the personnel budget for traffic enforcement.

“I returned very little of my personnel budget to the Town in June of 2010 because I had hired and assigned officers specifically to perform traffic enforcement in fiscal year 2010,” Meaney told the Board of Selectmen at Tuesday’s meeting. “In June of 2011, I returned approximately $90,000 to the Town and did no additional traffic enforcement in fiscal year 2011 and relied upon shift officers to perform enforcement.”

Citation Statistics from January to August:

Meaney said the number of citations in Massachusetts over the past year is down, according to an article in the Boston Globe and Medfield shows consistency with that report.

“I think there was a 20 to 25 percent decrease in speeding citations that [the Globe] was looking at particularly,” Meaney said. “Our numbers are down 24 percent, so that’s where we are with citations.”

Selectman Ann Thompson, who requested Meaney present the traffic information, called for more citations over the next year.

“I don’t know about the other two [selectmen] but I would love to see more speeding violations next year,” Thompson said.

Meaney pointed out that with more officers specifically assigned to traffic enforcement, the number of citations will likely increase as statistics showed in 2010.

“From 2009 to 2010, we increased citations by 217 percent,” Meaney said. “Part of what I did that year was put signs out for directed enforcement, where people should be and what enforcement should be done. I also used overtime moneys to either bring people in or to replace people on their shifts so people on their shift could be left alone to simply go out and do enforcement and I think that’s one of the reasons we see the numbers going up considerably that year.”

Meaney said the 41 percent decline in this year’s citations has been a result of using less of the personnel budget due to the uncertainty of the economy.

“Part of it is how much time and money do I want to dedicate to putting people out specifically to do enforcement on top of officers doing their regular work,” Meaney said. “This was a tough year [fiscally] so I just didn’t do a whole lot with [money] the past fiscal year.”

Meaney said over the course of this fiscal year he plans to revisit having more personnel covering traffic enforcement.

“I’m going to try and bring some more people in and bring in some more directed control and see if the [citation] numbers come back up again, which I think they will,” Meaney said. “We’ll see if it is more responsive to the citizens and to you folks.”

Statistics showed motor vehicle crashes and OUI arrests in town remained “relatively stable” according to Meaney.

Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics from January to August:

“[Motor vehicle crashes] hasn’t changed a lot in the past four or five years," Meaney said. "You go from 94 to 104 [crashes] that’s a 10 percent increase,” Meaney said. “I think part of that has to do with the road conditions we had in January, February and March. It was kind of tough driving.”

Meaney said the two roads in town that have the most crashes are “Route 109 and North Street.”

He added that the more serious accidents usually occur on West Street and Route 27, but few result in personal injuries.

“We have some fairly dramatic crashes on West Street and Route 27,” said Meaney. “When we have a crash down there, it’s usually not a simple fender bender but a significant one. … The majority of [motor vehicle accidents] are property damage crashes.”

OUI arrests were also consistent over the three-year span, rising only 11 percent in 2011.

OUI Arrest Statistics from January to August:

“A lot of [OUI arrests] tend to be later on in the evening,” Meaney said. “Ten O’clock, 11 O’clock, 12:30, 1 O’clock in the morning, sometimes associated with a motor vehicle crash. Typically we don’t see those during the regular daytime hours.”

Regular arrests saw the most drastic change, increasing by 128 percent in 2010 and 120 percent in 2011.

Regular Arrest Statistics from January to August:

“It actually ended up being a fairly interesting pattern and there’s actually some rationale and I figured out what happened behind it,” Meaney said. “The increase in the numbers of arrests is partially due to the availability of mobile data terminals in the cruisers. It should also be considered that each arrest takes two to three hours to process. This can be longer if the officer is required to remain in the station for a prisoner watch until the bail commissioner arrives.”

Meaney explained the data terminals allow “officers to simply sit on the side of the road and as opposed to just being able to look at the inspection sticker or try to grab the color of the small decal on the plate, they can simply run the plate” to check for uninsured or unlicensed operation of vehicles.

What that results in is you find the registered owner of that vehicle has their license suspended or revoked or the insurance for that particular vehicle has not been paid or it’s revoked and now you make the car stop,” Meaney said. “Instead of making the car stop for perhaps an inspection sticker, now it is an arrestable offense and I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve seen the significant up there in the amount of arrests over the course of this year. I thought it might happen but didn’t think it would happen this soon.”