Police Will Use Grant to Buy Checkpoint Lights

A $106,000 grant will help the step up traffic enforcement by, in part, giving them the means to purchase portable overhead lights for DUI checkpoints.

In its application for the grant, the department wrote that it will use the funds for a comprehensive DUI, red light, motorcycle and collision reduction safety program. The one-year grant was awarded to the department from the State of California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The majority of the funds--$88,800--will be used to for overtime pay for program enforcement, according to the application.

Another $12,285 will go toward the purchase of three generator-powered overhead lights.

"These lights will enable officers planning a checkpoint to set the checkpoint up in areas that see a high number of DUI arrests or collisions and not be tied to locations that have adequate lighting for checkpoints," wrote Capt. Dennis Vrooman, in a staff report to City Council.

The funding will also allow the police department to have a phlebotomist on hand to take blood samples of suspected DUI drivers at checkpoints, according to the grant application.

During a period that began Oct. 1 and will end Sept. 30, 2012, police will conduct 18 DUI saturation patrols, four DUI checkpoints, five red light enforcement operations and 13 motorcycle safety enforcement operations and two court sting operations targeting unlicensed drivers.

"With crimes rates low, traffic-related issues such as impaired driving and crashes, motorcycle crashes and several recent fatalities are major concerns for the Police Department that plague the city and generate the most complaints from citizens," wrote Police Chief Mike Baray in the grant application.

Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed three lives and resulted in 24 injury crashes harming 27 community members, the police department reported.

There were five fatal traffic collisions reported on Murrieta roadways between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2011. That is up from zero traffic fatalities in 2009, one in 2008 and none in 2007.