New Jersey cops can use this trick to write you a ticket, court rules

🔴 New Jersey law gives the right-of-way to pedestrians

🔴 Court rules police officers can use a special technique for tickets

🔴 A driver's claim that a cop is lying won't work

RED BANK — New Jersey drivers could face hefty fines from undercover police officers if they don't stop for fake pedestrians in crosswalks.

It's thanks to an enforcement tactic called a "Pedestrian Safety Detail."

One man, Herbert Stephens, was given a ticket in September by the Red Bank police and tried to fight the controversial strategy in court.

But earlier this month, the state Appellate Division ruled that Stephens had to pay the $190 fine. The published opinion sets a precedent for every police department in New Jersey.

New Jersey crosswalk law

In New Jersey, it's state law that vehicles must stop for pedestrians who want to cross the road at a crosswalk.

"The driver of a vehicle shall stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian to cross the roadway within a marked crosswalk, when the pedestrian is upon, or within one lane of, the half of the roadway, upon which the vehicle is traveling or onto which it is turning," the law says.

Despite the law, pedestrian fatalities are on the rise.

In 2024, there were 223 pedestrian deaths in New Jersey. That's an increase of 30% from the year before and the highest number in 36 years, according to State Police crash data.

So, New Jersey police officers are using creative — and controversial — tactics to crack down on drivers who don't stop for people trying to cross the street.

Police officers in New Jersey crosswalks

According to court documents, Herbert Stephens was pulled over by police on Maple Avenue in Red Bank on Sept. 16, 2024.

A Red Bank police officer said he failed to stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk at the intersection of Waverly Place.

The pedestrian was a decoy: A police sergeant in plainclothes. He was crossing the street as part of a police enforcement tactic.

But Stephens fought the ticket and said the sergeant wasn't in the crosswalk. And he said the other police officer, who was two blocks away, was too far from the scene to have seen the crossing.

The appellate judges ruled against Stephens and said there was no evidence that police were lying.

READ MORE: NJ man, 19, arrested on charges of sparking wildfire catastrophe

The decision also said that using the decoy tactic was not entrapment, which is when a law enforcement officer lures a civilian into committing a crime they wouldn't have committed otherwise.

"The Red Bank Police did not induce defendant to commit the offense but merely presented a situation where he had the opportunity to either stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, in compliance with the law, or proceed through it unlawfully. He chose the latter," the judges said.

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom