Seventy-four drivers got ticketed for using their phones on a single street in a small New Jersey town. In six hours. That number deserves a moment before the punchline lands: the officer spotting violations was dressed as a shrub. The Dunellen Borough Police Department ran a distracted driving operation on North Washington Avenue, a pedestrian-heavy corridor in Middlesex County, and the results paint a damning picture of how casually drivers ignore the law. Camera-based surveillance app technology has already reshaped how jurisdictions approach automated enforcement.
One Busy Street. Six Hours. 74 Phones.
The operation’s mechanics were straightforward — the costume was the twist.
Here’s how it worked. One officer wore a ghillie-style camouflage suit — artificial leaves, branches, the full landscaping cosplay — and stood roadside with binoculars. Violations got radioed to marked units nearby, which handled the actual stops. Det. Sgt. Nicholas Goldman told CBS New York the officer didn’t wear the suit for the entire detail. The costume was partly a social media strategy. The enforcement was dead serious.
- Location: North Washington Avenue, Dunellen Borough, Middlesex County, NJ
- Duration: Six hours
- Citations issued: 74, all for handheld cellphone use
- Law enforced: New Jersey’s Handheld Cell Phone Law
- The department’s own social media post described their “bush” as “quite active”
As commentators at The Drive pointed out, there’s a paradox baked into this operation. A driver staring at their phone probably wouldn’t notice a marked patrol car either. The shrub didn’t make the tactic effective — covert observation did. The costume generated viral coverage, which arguably matters more for long-term deterrence than the tickets themselves.
“A creative, lighthearted way to draw attention to the department’s safety campaign,” Goldman said, according to CBS New York. The underlying numbers, though, are anything but lighthearted. On one street, in one afternoon, 74 citations were issued — roughly one every five minutes.
A Costume Won’t Fix the Habit
Viral enforcement tactics make headlines, but the volume of violations points to a problem no ghillie suit can solve alone.
The department’s social media boasted their bush was “quite active,” and that’s genuinely funny until you do the math. That volume strongly suggests enforcement alone can’t close the gap. Pressure falls on automakers and smartphone platforms to build stronger anti-distraction defaults — driving modes that actually lock notifications — because drivers are clearly not self-regulating. Camera-based automated enforcement, already being piloted in other jurisdictions, offers another model worth watching.
On one street, in one small town, 74 citations were issued in a single afternoon. The next bush, it seems, is always watching.
