NORFOLK, Mass. (AP) – A Boston police officer is facing charges in Norfolk after his emphatic attempts to get drivers near his house to slow down.

James Meredith regularly joins residents who stand by a bus stop and warn drivers to slow down. But some drivers say he yells at them, jumps in front of their cars and even clocks their speed with a radar gun.

Prosecutors allege that Meredith, a Boston police sergeant, broke the passenger side mirror on a sport utility vehicle as the driver tried to swerve around him in January. He was charged with wanton destruction of property, according to court records, and the Boston Police Department says it has launched an internal affairs investigation.

Meredith, 42, told The Boston Globe he never jumps in front of cars. He said the SUV struck him in a marked crosswalk and the police department trumped up the property damage charge because it’s sick of his complaints.

“We’re the victims here,” said Meredith, who has a wife and three young children.

Meredith’s activism has divided the residents of the town of 10,500 southwest of Boston.

Officials say Meredith, who moved to Norfolk in 2002, has called nearly everyone in town government with rambling complaints.

“He’s been a real thorn in our side,” said Jack McFeeley, chairman of the board of selectmen until he resigned last month to pursue the town administrator job.

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