MANCHESTER, NH October 31, 2025–A review of traffic violations issued by the Manchester Police Department shows that it issued 1,515 tickets between the first of the year and September 9, 2025. While the department said the data provided to Girard at Large in response to a Right to Know request was through September 30, the last recorded date of citations issued in the data received was September 9. Using the September 9 date as the last date of data provided, that means MPD, on average, issues a mere six traffic violations per day.
Chief Peter Marr
A review of the data revealed that multiple tickets were issued on approximately 85 traffic stops, with police issuing three tickets to three motorists, four tickets to three motorists and two tickets to 79 motorists. Adjusting the numbers to reflect the multiple tickets leaves the number of motorists stopped to 1,430, or about 5.5 stops per day in this city with over 115,000 residents. Approximately 80,000 people commute to and from the city each day for work, with roughly half leaving the city to go to work and the other half commuting into the city to work. A regional center for shopping and business, tens of thousands of people a day come into the city.
Among our findings, approximately 14% of the violations issued were over license infractions, 10% dealt with verhicle registration, and 11% were because vehicles were uninspected. Approximately 200 tickets, or 13.5%, were issued for non-moving violations. All totaled, about 48.5% of all traffic violations were issued were not for moving violations.
The largest number of tickets issued, 377 (25%), was for speeding. There were 168 traffic control device violations (11%), 104 various failure to yield infractions (7%), including 93 noted as “stop signs;yield signs.” These infractions total 43% of all tickets issued. The remaining 8.5% were for a variety of moving violations, including 21 for wreckless driving (1.4%) and 21 (1.4%) for negligent driving.
Eighty seven tickets (5.7%) were issued for hands free violations, which may or may not have caused the traffic stop. For this article, we counted them as non-moving violations.
Girard at Large initiated this investigation after watching a police cruiser drive through the intersection at Elm St., Salmon St., and the Amoskeag Bridge, while the lights were down. The cruiser did not stop to direct traffic and proceeded to turn right onto Salmon St. He then drove through the stop sign at Chestnut St., without stopping or using his turn signal.
Troy Micklon (center) and Robert Rivera (Right) discuss traffic concerns as Phil Tuttle (left) looks on
When asked about this conduct, Police Chief Peter Marr told Girard at Large that the officer did not stop because the lights were flashing and that motorists should have known to treat the situation as if stop signs were there. When asked about the failure to use the turn signal or stop at the stop sign, Marr said he would remind officers to use their blinkers and speculated that the officer may have been going to a call for service. When pressed for answers, Marr decided to treat our inquiry as a Right to Know request and forwarded the matter to Lt. Jared Yaris, delaying the answers by several days. The officer in question, who we will not name as he is far from the only one who failes to stop at signs or use turn signals, was not answering a call for service. He also reported the troubled intersection to dispatch.
Interestingly, according to the data provided by MPD in response to our inquiries, the department has only issued 18 tickets for failure to use a turn signal. That’s just 1.2% of all the citations issued.
Concerns with road safety have made themselves known in races for alderman across the city. Freshman incumbent Crissy Kantor (R-Ward 6) and challengers Troy Micklon (R-Ward 9) and Robert Rivera (R-Ward 10) have made traffic issues a central theme in their campaigns. In an interview with Girard at Large, Micklon and Rivera spoke not only of resident concerns but their efforts to tame the city’s roads on their behalf. Both cited concerns with roadway safety and increased accident rates in the city as items that needed to be addressed.
Click here to see the data provided about these traffic stops to Girard at Large. It’s in Excel.
