Law enforcement will not be letting down its guard on the roads.
The Central Alabama Highway Safety Office, which serves Lee County, is slated to receive $128,399 in funds for traffic safety programs. The amount is a portion of $1.9 million awarded to Alabama by the federal government.
"What we do is the money comes from the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, and we administer the grant," said Bill Whatley, program manager at the Alabama Department of Community and Economic Affairs. "We have nine regions that are part of our community traffic safety program, and so we administer the grants to the nine different traffic safety offices around the state."
Whatley said the funds, which are to be used throughout the year, are independent of funds allotted to the two major annual traffic safety initiatives, the Click It or Ticket and Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaigns.
"There's money for selective enforcement, which they're able to use in parts of the year that may not coincide with a national campaign," Whatley said. "It's more localized, in case there are certain events going on in that area that may warrant extra patrols. A lot of it covers overtime for different types of increased patrols."
Whatley said the Auburn City Police Department, Opelika City Police Department and Lee County Sheriff's Office are all participating agencies. Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said any and all funding is welcome.
"We'll have saturation patrols and checkpoints at different areas throughout the county," Jones said.
Law enforcement statistics decide specifically where the grant dollars should be directed.
"The Alabama Center for Advanced Public Safety will run our statistics and tell us if we've had a certain number of fatal accidents in a certain area; for example, in Auburn you'd probably have a worse problem on Highway 280 or maybe Wire Road than you would on some smaller, less-traveled areas in the county," Whatley said.
The idea is for local law enforcement agencies to target their enforcement dollars in the areas where it'll do the most good Whatley said.
"What we're really trying to do with these grants is change attitudes--behavior modification," Whatleysaid.
He said the goal is to discourage people from driving not just under the influence of alcohol, but any substance causing mental impairment, including prescription medications.
"It's a reminder: 'Hey, drive safe, follow the speed limit, wear your seatbelt, don't drink and drive,'" said Josh Carples, communications at ADECA. "Just to make the roads safer for all of us."
Whatley said the funds help in two ways: by establishing a more visible law enforcement presence and by increasing the actual enforcement.
"Quite honestly, by doing checkpoints we catch a lot of drivers," Whatley said. "People have open containers, or they have children that aren't buckled. I've been there before, and you can smell marijuana from the car when they drive up. You'd think they'd cover it up or try to open a window or something, but they don't. It's quite amazing."
Gov. Robert Bentley, whose office is responsible for securing the funding, said the money would be well-used.
"Unsafe and irresponsible drivers pose a danger to every motorist on the road," Bentley said, speaking in support of the grant. "I commend our law enforcement officers for their daily dedication to the safety of Alabama's residents."
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