PORTSMOUTH -- The Portsmouth and Middletown police departments are teaming up to tackle speeding and reckless driving.

Operation Safe Summer “will be a highly visible and coordinated approach to traffic safety,” a press release says. “At different times and different locations, motorists can expect to see an increase in police activity in a coordinated effort to enhance the safety of our roadways.”

The press release doesn’t specify the roads on which the police departments will focus their efforts, but East Main Road — an approximately 8.7-mile stretch that runs from Two Mile Corner in Middletown to Boyds Lane in Portsmouth — and West Main Road — an approximately 8.2-mile thoroughfare that runs from One Mile Corner to the Bristol Ferry Road/Turnpike Avenue intersection in Portsmouth — have historically been problematic four-lane roads.

Tanya Rocchio, records clerk at the Middletown Police Department, said previously officers issued 246 speeding citations in 2018 on East Main Road and 665 speeding citations on West Main Road that year.

Middletown police issued 33 distracted driving — i.e. texting or talking on the phone without a hands-free device — on East Main Road in 2018 and 78 distracted driving citations on West Main Road that year.

With Operation Safe Summer, Middletown and Portsmouth police “seek to lower the rates of crashes and eliminate aggressive driving actions of motorists on roadways,” the press release says.