Letter: Bill Helps Police 'Perform Their Jobs More Effectively'

To the Editor:

On Monday, April 29, the NJ State Assembly by a vote of 76-0 passed bipartisan legislation which I proposed when I was a member of the Assembly. The bill, A-354, was proposed at the request of members of our local police departments and requires that all lamps and lighting devices on motor vehicles be kept in working order. It clarifies existing law and became necessary as a result of a 2009 court case. In that case, the defendant moved to suppress evidence on the grounds that the police officer did not have sufficient cause for initiating the stop because the driver had the minimum number of operating stop lights required by the current law.

Bill A-354 is currently co-sponsored by Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose and Assemblyman Parker Space, who succeeded me in the Assembly. I want to take this opportunity to thank Assemblywoman McHose and Assemblyman Space for their support of police officers locally and throughout the state. The reason I willingly became a primary sponsor of this bill and why it passed unanimously is a testimony to the Legislature’s desire to assist police and to help them perform their jobs more effectively. I anxiously await this bill’s passage by Senator Oroho and the full House and ultimately seeing it signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.  

Sincerely,

Gary Chiusano

Sussex County Surrogate