Jersey City has more than doubled the size of its police Traffic Enforcement Division, and the city says the effect showed up in the numbers within a week: officers issued 1,495 traffic summonses in the first week after the expanded unit hit the street, up 81 percent from 824 summonses the week before, Mayor James Solomon announced on Monday, November 2, 2026.
Source: City of Jersey City
The expansion took effect on October 19, when the city transferred 10 officers from patrol duties into the Traffic Enforcement Division. The move brought the unit to 19 officers in total, including eight motorcycle operators, as the Jersey City Police Department (JCPD) rebuilds its Motorcycle Unit, according to the mayor's office.
"Nearly everyone in Jersey City has a story about a driver speeding down their block or running a red light in front of a school, and for years the response from City Hall was that nothing could be done about it," Mayor Solomon said in the city's statement. "We rebuilt the Traffic Enforcement Division on day one because that answer was never good enough, and now we have put more officers in the unit, and summonses went up 81% in a single week. Everyone deserves safe streets, and we are going to keep building this unit until reckless driving in Jersey City carries a real consequence."
How the unit was rebuilt
The expansion builds on an executive order Mayor Solomon signed the day after taking office, which re-established the Traffic Enforcement Division as a dedicated unit responsible for citywide traffic safety enforcement. The city says the change also freed patrol officers to focus on neighbourhood policing instead of traffic duty.
The unit's work is part of Jersey City's recommitment to Vision Zero, the goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets. Jersey City is New Jersey's second-largest city, and its officials say dangerous driving has been one of the most consistent complaints City Hall hears from residents.
The bigger unit did not come out of the tax budget, the city said: the 10 new motorcycles for the expanded division were purchased using seized forfeiture funds, with no taxpayer dollars used.
Where enforcement is concentrated
Between October 11 and October 24, the division issued 2,735 summonses across the city, the mayor's office said. Roughly 335 of them were written on Grand Street, where the division has concentrated its enforcement, and officers issued 134 summonses citywide through radar speed enforcement.
Source: WDHA FM / Jersey City Times reporting
For the large Punjabi and wider South Asian community that lives, works and runs businesses in Jersey City — including the Journal Square and India Square areas — the crackdown is everyday news, not an abstract policy: it affects the school runs, deliveries, shop traffic and commutes of thousands of families who use these streets daily.
A summons is a ticket for a traffic violation such as speeding or running a red light. An 81 percent jump in one week does not by itself prove the streets are safer, but it shows the new unit is stopping and citing far more drivers than the smaller unit could — the test will be whether violations, crashes and injuries fall over the coming months.
What happens next
Starting this month, JCPD command staff and Traffic Enforcement Division officers will attend the Captain's meeting in each of the city's four police districts. Residents can raise their traffic concerns directly at those meetings, and officers will walk the public through how the unit's operations and enforcement work, the city said.
The mayor has said the city will keep building the unit until reckless driving in Jersey City "carries a real consequence." No end date for the expansion has been announced, and the city has not yet published crash or injury figures for the period since the bigger unit took to the streets.