The San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office have both received state grants by the California Office of Traffic Safety to fight Drunk Driving.
Local Police, including the San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office have received grants worth $180,000 each from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The grants will help them to pay for more officers to enforce safety measures and to fight drunk driving.
The grants, which are expected to fund a year’s worth of traffic safety measures, were given to the departments to enforce traffic safety programs and to help reduce traffic accidents involving drunk driving by enforcing DUI checkpoints, enforcing seatbelts and other safety laws.
According to Officer Albert Morales of the San Jose Police Department, a large part of the grants will be used for DUI enforcement. The grants will also help train the officers and teach them techniques to help them investigate drunk driving. They will also be used to serve similar purpose at their office and will go towards funding the Avoid the 13 DUI campaign, which focuses on drunk driving prevention.
“It’s also not coming out of our budget, so it allows us to put more officers on the street,” Morales said.
Morales also said that the grants come at the right time as the holiday season is approaching, which is accompanied with a high incidence of traffic related accidents, specifically those involving drunk driving.
Statistics provided by the police department confirm that drunk driving crashes cause almost 30 percent of traffic fatalities. Grants like these help to reduce these statistics, and keep the roads safe for everyone. However, recent state and federal statistics show a small rise in the number of statewide deaths in road accidents in 2011. The same statistics show a drop in traffic deaths statewide by almost 39 percent between 2006 and 2010.
Chief of San Jose Police, Chris More, said that he was “very pleased” about the grant.
