Courtesy of WGRZ
LEWISTON, N.Y. — The number of traffic tickets Lewiston Police issued last year more than doubled from the year before. The police chief says since COVID, drivers are more brazen about not following traffic laws.
Traffic tickets, arrests, and calls were all up significantly in Lewiston when you compare 2023 to 2024.
2 On Your Side talked with the police chief about why this happened and how his department is handling it.
"We were receiving probably more complaints than I can ever remember regarding the biggest complaints that we were getting were vehicle and traffic," Chief Frank Previte of the Lewiston Police Department said.
In 2023, the Lewiston Police Department, which covers the Town and Village of Lewiston — 66 square miles — issued 993 traffic tickets. Last year, officers issued 2,042. That's an increase of more than 105 percent.
Chief Previte says the department recently started using license plate readers to help issue tickets, but says the increase also has to do with people's behavior.
"We kind of lost some ground, I think, during COVID and it's taken this long to even catch up," Chief Previte said.
"Do you think people changed their driving habits during COVID?" 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik asked.
"I can tell you 100 percent that people changed their driving habits. They disregarded. We were pulling people over that were doing whatever they wanted and were under the impression that they wouldn't be stopped for vehicle and traffic stuff because of a pandemic-type situation," Chief Previte said.
Chief Previte says during the height of the pandemic, traffic stops went down because he wanted to limit in-person interactions to keep his officers and the public healthy.
"I've been doing this 30 years, I've never seen what I'm seeing now, and it's really been since then. And it's not really, I mean, we've attacked it, and we've done things, even countywide with other departments to try to address it, and maybe a little bit of progress, but it's still, we're still catching up," Chief Previte said.
The neighboring Town of Niagara Police Department also saw a dramatic increase in traffic tickets issued last year. The number was up 88 percent from 2023.
New York State Police in Niagara County saw a modest nearly 8 percent increase. While the Niagara County Sheriff's Office saw the number of traffic tickets jump ten-percent in that same period.
Traffic tickets aren't the only thing on the rise in Lewiston. The number of calls to the department, and arrests made by its 30 officers, also jumped by about 50 percent from 2023 to last year.
Chief Previte told us that many times, it's the same people who keep getting arrested, and he blames bail reform.
"They're getting released right away, and they're going out and doing the same thing again, so in the time that they would have been arrested once, now there are six arrests," Chief Previte said. "There has to be some sort of repercussion, and when there isn't, people do what they want.
"If we pull them over, and their tickets are dismissed, or if they're getting charged with misdemeanors and they're reduced to nothing, what is the incentive? Why wouldn't they do it again if they're just getting a slap on the wrist, or whatever, so some of that is why that has increased, and some of it is beyond our control, and it's very frustrating."
Chief Previte also told 2 On Your Side these numbers don't necessarily mean the crime rate is going up. He credits better tools, like the license plate scanner, to detect people breaking the law.
