Petaluma PD Scores State Grant For Traffic Safety, Awareness Efforts

PETALUMA, CA – The Petaluma Police Department was awarded an $80,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic-related deaths and injuries.

The Petaluma Police Department said it will use the funds to keep roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education. The grant from the Office of Traffic Safety will fund efforts in traffic safety, said Lieutenant Danny Fish.

After falling to a 10-year low in 2010, the number of persons killed climbed nearly 17 percent across the state with 3,176 killed in 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Petaluma, alone, had three pedestrians killed in traffic collisions in 2016.

Particularly alarming is the six-year rise in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, along with the growing dangers of distracting technologies, and the emergence of drug-impaired driving as a major problem.

“Years of research tell us that enforcement and education work best jointly to combat unsafe driving,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “This grant brings both tactics together, with the Office of Traffic Safety and the Petaluma Police Department working in concert to help keep the streets and highways safe across Petaluma and the state.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Educational presentations
• DUI checkpoints
• DUI saturation patrols
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement
• Motorcycle safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement
• Speed, red light, and stop sign enforcement
• Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders
• Compilation of DUI “Hot Sheets,” identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders
• Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE)
• Court “sting” operations to cite individuals driving from DUI court after ignoring their license suspension or revocation
• Stakeout operations to observe the “worst-of-the-worst” repeat DUI offender probationers with suspended or revoked driver licenses

Also see: Trio Killed In Morning Crash Near Samuel P. Taylor State Park Identified

--Image via Petaluma PD