New Jersey law enforcement officials are reminding people not to believe everything they read online.

It turns out social media reports that have been warning of a “30-day speeding ticket frenzy” by the State Police are false.

“Although the motoring public may be concerned, I find it absurd. Ticket quotas are illegal in New Jersey,” said State Police Superintendent Pat Callahan.

“Law enforcement, whether they’re state, county or local, are out there doing their job and traffic enforcement is certainly part of their job, keeping our motorists safe. But the idea of ticket quotas or blitzes is completely false.”

Jared Maples, the director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, said similar kinds of disinformation campaigns have been launched to spread lies about the COVID-19 pandemic and election security, and this type of activity is considered a threat.

“This, quite frankly, fits very neatly into that local level issue of people interpreting disinformation or misinformation and making poor decisions off of that or spreading other rumors about things that quite frankly aren’t happening,” he said last week.

Maples stressed it’s important to dispel false rumors in order to keep everybody clear on what is and is not happening, especially during a pandemic.

“The public needs to get their information from trusted resources only,” he said.

Callahan noted while ticket blitzes do not exist, “we do have aggressive driver campaigns, we have Click-it-or-Ticket, we have DWI patrols.”

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He said if you’re out on a highway and you see four troop cars in a 15-mile stretch, they are "out there enforcing traffic violations based upon a program that’s usually supported by National Traffic Highway Safety and New Jersey’s Highway Traffic Safety.”

“It’s not to hit any particular quota, it’s to prevent fatalities and to get people from A to B safely,” he said.

Maples said the fake ticket blitz story has been added to the NJOHSP rumor control website.

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You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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