Warner Robins Police Department receives $146K grant to boost DUI enforcement
The $146,000 grant will fund extra patrols, checkpoints and awareness campaigns to reduce impaired driving and traffic fatalities.
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Warner Robins Police Department has been awarded a $146,000 DUI enforcement grant to help reduce drunk driving crashes and improve road safety across the city.
Sergeant Christopher Fussell says there’s been a recent increase in DUI arrests, and the grant will fund additional patrols, sobriety checkpoints, and public awareness campaigns.
“We can’t say we’ve seen an increase in DUIs, but we have seen an increase in DUI arrests,” he said. “So, our number of DUI arrests went up 60% in the last year. The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety offers H.E.A.T. grants based on the number of motor vehicle accidents, serious injuries, and how many are DUI or speed related. We saw a high number of motor vehicle accidents in the city of Warner Robins and applied for the grant.”
Sgt. Fussell says the grant will help Warner Robins build a dedicated unit that works together to maintain safe roadways in Houston County.
“Overall, our injuries sustained in those collisions and our DUI-related collisions have decreased,” he said. “Ultimately, we’re trying to make the roads safer by reducing the number of traffic accidents inside the city limits of Warner Robins.”
Fussell explained the goal of the H.E.A.T. team and what they are doing to help citizens.
“To reduce the number of accidents overall, the number of motor vehicle accidents, and ultimately the number of fatalities inside the city limits of Warner Robins,” he said.
He believes this grant will make a major difference in the city and the way the police department handles DUI situations.
“October 1 started our second year of our H.E.A.T. grant,” he said. “I can tell you at the completion of the first year, we had zero motor vehicle fatalities inside the city limits. We went from nine in the year prior to zero in this past year.”
