Bishop PD launches anti-DUI program with new grant
The Bishop Police Department has been awarded a new traffic safety grant for a year-long anti-DUI program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on roadways. New enforcement measures to combat impaired driving are coming as a result of a recent $53,000 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to Bishop PD.
The special DUI Enforcement and Awareness grant is to assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol and other drug related collisions. The grant activities will specifically target impaired driving offenders as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving. This will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders, saturation patrols, and court stings targeting DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver licenses who get behind the wheel after leaving court.
Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2009, nearly 11,000 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.
“Last year in California 950 people died in alcohol impaired crashes, a 7.6 percent reduction in deaths from 2008,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help keep that trend going by getting drunk drivers off the roadways of Bishop, making it safer for everyone.”
New this year is the addition of two special Motorcycle Safety Enforcement Operations. In 2009, motorcycle fatalities dropped for the first time after an 11 year, 175 percent increase. These operations are aimed at keeping that decline going.
Bishop Police Officers will be conducting specialized enforcement efforts throughout the course of the next year. Extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas frequented by motorcycles. Officers will be cracking down on traffic violations made by motorcyclists, and other vehicle drivers, that result in far too many motorcycle collisions, injuries and deaths.
Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. –Bishop Police Department
