Briefly: Illegal handgun confiscated in routine traffic search

During a routine traffic stop Saturday evening, New Haven Police Department officers found an illegal sawed-off handgun in the front passenger seat of a green Nissan Maxima stopped at Elm Street and Ella Grasso Boulevard, City Hall spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said in a statement Sunday. Getting guns off the street has been a priority for the NHPD; Mayorga said the policy evidences the NHPD’s new Targeted Activity Policing strategy, which was announced in February. Enhanced traffic enforcement, she said, works to deter larger crimes by targeting criminal behavior at a lower level. In 2008 there were 22 shootings in New Haven, 20 of which were committed with a firearm.