On Tuesday, July 14, Police Chief David Kullgren visited Newtown’s Borough Board of Burgesses to give an update to the Safe Streets 4 All (SS4A) program. Members of Newtown’s Police Commission, Scott Cicciari, Steve Stolfi, and Philip Cruz, were also present at the meeting to provide further insights and explanation.

Kullgren offered a brief refresher as to what SS4A is. SS4A operates with federal grant funding to reduce roadway deaths and serious physical injury within the community. Kullgren added that the research needs to be supported by crash data. There are two types of grants: planning and demonstration and implementation.

Newtown has had traffic engineers come in and assess the most “at risk” areas within the town and have suggested traffic calming measures. Now, Newtown is entering the “demonstration phase,” which includes implementing low-cost, temporary traffic calming measures. Kullgren said it is a great way to see if the traffic calming measures will work and have desired outcomes.

“We could go and have spent two and a half million dollars and relandscape and street scape this whole Main Street, make it look beautiful, and then have poor outcomes,” Kullgren said. “If it doesn’t work…traffic’s backed up too long, people are diverting on streets we don’t want them to go, those are the things we want to look for.”

Kullgren said that part of the implementation is going to be purchasing “rapid flashing beacons,” or “rectangular flashing beacons.” Those are solar powered, flashing lights on each side of the crosswalk that can be activated with a push button. These rapidly flashing amber lights alert drivers that a pedestrian is crossing the roadway.

Part of the reason that Kullgren visited Borough Board of Burgesses is because one area that was considered “at risk” is Main Street and its intersections with Church Hill Road and West Street, which fall in Borough limits — more specifically within Borough Historic District limits. Kullgren emphasized that SS4A is a community-based project and the SS4A committee is relying heavily on feedback from residents within Newtown.

Kullgren then showed some examples of what temporary traffic calming measures could look like using AI to superimpose temporary stanchions along Main Street. These stanchions would be breakaway PVC material but would start to “train” drivers in the area that changes are starting to be made. Curb outs are another option the SS4A committee is exploring. These curb outs would make passing on the right, or over the fog line, more difficult for motorists and would shorten the crosswalks for pedestrians, therefore reducing the overall time a pedestrian is in the roadway.

The curb outs may affect parking at The General Store, Kullgren confirmed, but how much it will be affected is still unknown. He explained that the traffic engineers may be able to find alternative parking “in areas where we may not have thought of.” These temporary measures will influence the final design.

Kullgren also showed suggestions from a traffic engineer to move the crosswalks that go across Main Street by the flagpole farther away from the intersection in both directions.

“We all know when you’re at that intersection, there’s a lot going on,” Kullgren told the board.

Kullgren then returned to the rectangular flashing beacons. He said the cost for a pair of them is about $20,000. The beacons would also be equipped with flood lights that point in the street to further illuminate crosswalks. This produced a lively discussion between the burgesses.

Burgess Jim Gaston was the first to speak, “With respect to lighting like this on Main Street, will those lights shine [into] people’s houses?”

Burgess John Madzula added that it would be only on activation. Kullgren said that they would do a nighttime demo of an existing one.

Madzula added that there would be one right in front of his house, and after crossing Main Street to get to and from the Meeting House at night, he thinks there needs to be more lighting in that area.

“I think it’s reasonable,” Madzula said.

Cicciari also joined the conversation. He said if the lights are positioned properly, they really only shine on the crosswalk. The lights will also be adjustable, so they would be “constrained to that crosswalk space.”

“We’re at the point now where we’ve put a couple years in the planning of all this. We have some funding available…we need to start to show some progress now. Try some things,” Cicciari said. “We want this to be pleasing from a town perspective.”

Kullgren offered more clarity about how the flood lights work, noting that their use is “intermittent” and will be used only when activated.

Gaston asked if the curb outs would go into the “right-of-way” areas, or “people’s private property.” Kullgren said that the GIS map shows it as state property.

Burgess Maureen Crick Owen, who is also on the SS4A committee, said that the road is going to be narrowed, so the curb outs would go into the road, not into people’s properties.

Gaston also pointed out that the state road and flagpole are both in Historic District limits, and told Kullgren he will probably have to go to Borough Historic District as well.

After the discussion, Kullgren said he wanted to take two minutes to go over some “social media hot topics.”

License Plate Readers, Red Light And Speed Management Cameras

Kullgren took sometime to clear up a “wave of misinformation” that he has seen on social media regarding license plate readers (LPRs), red light cameras, and speed cameras. This is part of an informational campaign Newtown Police Department started nine months ago.

He explained that Newtown Police Department has been using LPRs for 18 years on patrol vehicles, but they were only being used while the vehicle was being used.

Kullgren said, “If you have equipment that you’re paying for, and the officer isn’t on shift, it’s sitting in the parking lot. So, the vendors started thinking about how can we help the police with this? Well, you can put them in every car, but even better, what about watching your community 24/7?”

Kullgren said that they were very successful, and now there are 14 LPRs in town. He then went over what the cameras can and cannot do.

Madzula asked if Flock Safety was one Newtown Police used. Kullgren said yes and that Flock has taken “the forefront in transparency” and has “taken the forefront in working with our legislation here in Connecticut.”

Kullgren said that this technology has been used in the US for 39 years, like for the EZPass toll systems and school bus enforcement cameras. Kullgren explained that red light cameras only take photos of those who violate the law, it is only a picture of the registration plate which is owned by the state, and the photo is held for 30 days. Come October 1, the image will be held for only 21 days. He emphasized that no data is shared or sold.

To illustrate his point, he included a slide in his presentation that showed the kind of information card issuers and smartphones collect. Information such as full name, date of birth, social security number, bank account numbers, transaction data, and more is all collected. Kullgren also said that this information is bought and sold all the time by third parties.

“LPR’s traffic management cameras cannot [sell information]. They don’t collect your info, they don’t know what cold medicine you have, they don’t know what diapers your kids have. There’s not even a comparison,” Kullgren said.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.