New Jersey Police Use Officer Dressed as Shrub to Issue 74 Distracted-Driving Tickets in Six Hours

On a busy New Jersey street, a cop dressed as a leafy shrub wrote 74 tickets in six hours, turning a joke-worthy stunt into a very real clash over how far government should go to watch citizens.

Story Snapshot

A Dunellen officer in a shrub costume watched drivers and helped issue 74 distracted-driving tickets in six hours.
Police say the goal was to enforce New Jersey’s handheld cellphone ban and protect pedestrians in a crowded downtown area.
The tactic grabbed national headlines and raised fresh questions about undercover policing, driver privacy, and government overreach.
The operation fits a wider statewide push to make distracted driving costly, with fines starting around $200 for first offenses.

Officer in a Bush Suit Targets Distracted Drivers

On Wednesday in Dunellen, New Jersey, a local police officer swapped his normal uniform for a full shrub costume and took up position along North Washington Avenue. This downtown stretch is known for heavy car and foot traffic, which makes distraction behind the wheel especially risky. From inside the leaves, the officer used binoculars to spot drivers holding their phones or looking at screens instead of the road. Once he saw a violation, nearby officers in regular gear made the stops and wrote the tickets.

The Dunellen Police Department later posted on social media that their “bush” or “shrub” had a very busy day. According to the department, officers issued 74 citations to distracted drivers during a six-hour enforcement detail. New Jersey law bans drivers from using handheld cellphones while driving, and first-time fines can range from about $200 to $400. The department framed the operation as a safety effort, warning, “That text or notification can wait. Keep your eyes on the road, not your screen.”

Part of a Larger Crackdown on Phone Use While Driving

The shrub operation did not come out of nowhere; New Jersey has been pushing hard against distracted driving for years. State campaigns with slogans like “Put the Phone Away or Pay” have funded extra enforcement details in many towns, with officers specifically looking for drivers on handheld devices. Video reports describe police across the state watching for people on phones and reminding residents that penalties get steeper with repeat offenses. Dunellen’s leafy officer fits this trend, using an eye-catching tactic to enforce a rule many drivers still ignore.

Across the country, police sometimes use undercover methods to catch offenses that are easy to hide when officers are visible, such as texting at red lights or rolling through crosswalks. In New Jersey, officers have gone undercover in plain clothes to watch stop-sign behavior or to pose as decoys in theft cases. Law-enforcement trade publications note that such operations aim to boost safety and deterrence but can look theatrical or sneaky to the public. Dunellen’s shrub detail combines both ideas: serious safety goals delivered with a comic-book style disguise.

Safety Goals Meet Skepticism About Hidden Policing

For many drivers, the image of a cop dressed as a bush is funny at first glance, but it also taps into deeper worries about how government uses its power. People on both the right and the left already feel watched by cameras, license-plate readers, and unmarked cars, and they question whether enforcement is about safety or easy revenue. When police add costumes and surprise tactics, some citizens see clever policing, while others see one more sign that officials would rather catch people than fix bigger problems like bad roads or long commutes.

At the same time, New Jersey has faced a string of cases where private citizens allegedly impersonated officers to stop or threaten drivers, including attempted kidnappings and fake traffic stops on major highways. In those incidents, state police stressed how dangerous it is when someone pretends to have government power and uses it to control people. That backdrop shapes how residents view any unusual enforcement: they want real police to stop crime and crashes, but they also worry about feeling tricked or trapped on the road, even when the tactic is legal and supervised.

What We Still Do Not Know About the Operation’s Impact

Public reports confirm the shrub disguise, the six-hour window, and the 74 distracted-driving citations, but some details remain unclear. The available information does not show court outcomes, so we do not know how many tickets were later upheld, reduced, or dismissed. There is also no crash or injury data yet for that part of North Washington Avenue, so we cannot say whether the operation changed long-term safety or driver behavior after the cameras left and the costume went back in the closet.

i know this looks like something straight out of a sketch comedy show.

it is actually a police officer disguised as a shrub.

police in new jersey used the disguise during a distracted driving operation — with the officer watching for drivers on their phones while nearby… pic.twitter.com/NBDwnziP2k

— Michael Rusch (@weeddude) July 31, 2026

The Dunellen Police Department has used the event to push a simple message: put the phone down while driving. That message lines up with what many families, safety advocates, and first responders have been saying for years as they deal with crashes caused by distraction. But for Americans who already feel the system is stacked against ordinary people, the story of a hidden cop in a bush can feel like a symbol of a government that would rather hide in the leaves and write tickets than listen to why so many citizens feel stressed, rushed, and unheard on the road and far beyond it.