Plazas may be included in police patrols

Scofflaw drivers, beware.Two privately owned shopping plaza parking lots may soon fall under Brick Township Police Department jurisdiction.

State traffic laws would apply in the parking lots of Value City Plaza, owned by 515 Brick Blvd. LLC, on Brick Boulevard, and the Towne Shoppes, owned by Joint Venture LLC, on Cedar Bridge Avenue, if the Township Council adopts an ordinance it introduced July 25.

That means a driver who goes through a stop sign or commits any number of moving traffic violations while rolling through either of these plazas can be ticketed by police officers.

The ordinance simply adds two additional shopping plaza parking lots to those that already fall under the auspices of the Brick Police Department, Police Capt. Douglas Kinney said.

"The majority of all our plazas are Subtitle One," he said.

Subtitle One of Title 39 refers to the state statute that governs traffic violations.

"We can't enforce traffic laws within the lots because it's private property," said acting Business Administrator Scott Pezarras at the July 25 council meeting.

The property owner must request the lot be patrolled by police. The state Department of Transportation must then approve the request, Pezarras said.

The state DOT and the Brick Township Police Department Traffic Safety Unit have already signed off on the plans, Pezarras said.

The council is expected to adopt the ordinances Aug. 8.

- Colleen Lutolf