Submitted by Karen Fassuliotis
An Open Letter to the Police Commissioner and the Chief of Police
Subject: Greenwich Needs Cops on the Streets, Not Cameras on the Poles
Dear Police Commissioner Camillo and Chief of Police Heavey:
As a newly appointed magistrate, I have had an opportunity to see firsthand the deterrent effect that comes from requiring someone who contests a traffic infraction to appear in court and answer for their conduct. The prospect of having to take a day off from work, physically appear before a magistrate, explain one’s actions, and potentially face a substantial fine can be a meaningful deterrent. It reinforces an important principle: traffic laws are not suggestions, and there are consequences for ignoring them.
That is why I remain concerned about Greenwich’s decision to reinstate its traffic camera program, which appears imminent after the state approved Greenwich’s plan. After the cameras were shut down because of procedural errors, and with the town now facing a class action lawsuit over the program, the recent approval to turn them back on raises important questions about whether we are pursuing the right approach to traffic safety in the first place.
As you know, I am not a proponent of traffic cameras. To me, they represent another tax on residents and motorists, while taking enforcement decisions away from the judgment of a trained police officer. A camera cannot consider the circumstances surrounding an incident, distinguish between a momentary mistake and genuinely dangerous driving, or exercise the discretion that is an essential part of responsible policing. It simply records and generates a citation.
More importantly, cameras address only a narrow category of traffic violations at predetermined locations. They do nothing to address the broader pattern of dangerous and inconsiderate driving occurring throughout our town.
Here’s a case in point. I bring my dogs to Bruce Park daily, and a drive I took last week illustrates the problem better than any traffic study could.
I pulled out of my driveway and proceeded down my street traveling at 25 mph when a car approached from behind, riding my bumper, apparently trying to pressure me into driving faster. Much to his frustration, I did not.
At the stop sign at Patterson and Deer Park Roads, I watched as a car, approaching from my right, sailed straight through their stop sign without stopping. I continued down Patterson at 25 mph, turned right onto Maher Avenue.
As I proceeded down Maher past Brunswick School, I found myself weaving around landscaping and other tradesmen’s trucks parked along both sides of the street, despite posted no-parking restrictions on one side that many were parked on. Apparently, those signs are optional for some.
At the intersection of Maher Avenue and East Putnam Avenue, I watched a driver in the right lane make a right turn on red, despite clearly posted signs prohibiting it. I waited in the left lane for the light to turn green, began to proceed and make a left turn, but before I could do so I had to stop because another driver on the Post Road apparently interpreted a red light as a suggestion rather than an instruction to stop.
I turned onto the Post Road and then right onto Milbank Avenue. Still traveling at 25 mph, I reached the school zone. I maintained that speed because the posted sign indicated that the reduced speed limit of 20 mph was not in effect for the time I was traveling through. A car behind me approached rapidly down the hill, caught me and honked for me to speed up.
Heading toward Julian Curtiss School, I stopped at the stop sign and watched an adult on a motor scooter breeze through the intersection without stopping. A little farther along, as I proceeded past another intersection, a driver went right through while a pedestrian waited to cross. Apparently, yielding to pedestrians was another rule that could be disregarded.
From there, the drive was relatively uneventful, although stop signs continued to seem optional for some motorists.
I did not make any of this up. Every one of these incidents happened during a single drive, on familiar Greenwich streets, in the course of an ordinary day.
And not one of these behaviors (except perhaps running the red light) would have been corrected by installing another traffic camera.
This is precisely why I believe Greenwich needs more actual traffic enforcement, not cameras. We need visible police patrols on residential streets, officers monitoring intersections, enforcement of stop signs and traffic signals, attention to illegal parking, and accountability for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians. We need officers where violations are actually occurring, not simply cameras where the town has decided to install them.
There is also an important distinction between collecting fines and improving public safety. A camera can issue a citation, but it cannot intervene in a dangerous situation, educate a driver, exercise discretion, or address the many forms of reckless and inconsiderate driving that make our roads unsafe. If the objective is public safety, we should be measuring success by whether driving behavior (not just speeding) improves, and not by how many citations or dollars are generated.
By the way, the irony of all this is that I am now going to purchase a dash camera of my own, so I will be joining the growing number of residents documenting what they see on our roads. But residents should not have to become their own traffic enforcement officers. That is a responsibility of our police department.
Greenwich residents deserve more than automated enforcement. They deserve a police department that is visible, engaged, and actively enforcing the traffic laws already on the books.
Traffic cameras collect fines. Police officers exercise judgment, deter dangerous behavior, and protect the public. Greenwich needs actual policing, not another tax disguised as traffic safety.
While I likely know the answer, I respectfully ask the Police Commissioner and our Chief of Police to keep the cameras turned off and instead make meaningful, visible traffic enforcement a priority throughout Greenwich.
Sincerely,
Karen Fassuliotis
P.S. My offer to use my driveway for the police to monitor speeding and other infractions on my street remains open.