Traffic Stop Leads to Tiff Between Police Agencies

A seemingly routine traffic stop on Route 208 north last week became anything but, after the driver handed her license to the sheriff’s officer that pulled her over.

Bergen Freeholder Maura DeNicola, R-Franklin Lakes, was pulled over last Wednesday night after a freeholder meeting, and the car she was driving, which was registered to her husband, was towed due to an expired registration, according to a report by Northjersey.com.


County police reportedly showed up on the scene afterward, and while the sheriff’s department accused them of interference on behalf of an elected official, county police representatives said it was routine support for a nighttime traffic stop.

DeNicola has taken a stance against a merger of the two police agencies, in opposition to her Republican colleagues on the freeholders board as well as Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino.

“I was shocked that the registration lapsed,” DenNicola told the Record. “Was I surprised when I was pulled over by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department after taking a hard line against the merger? Yes.”

Among the recommendations from a committee tasked with studying cost cutting and potential merging of services between the agencies, on which DeNicola, a former mayor of Franklin Lakes, served, was that the sheriff's department cut costs by focusing less on traffic policing.

The sheriff’s department maintained that the officer was unaware DeNicola was the driver until she handed him her license, and that politics played no role in the stop.