The Culver City Police Department has been awarded a $133,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries.

The Culver City Police Department will use the funding as part of the city's ongoing commitment to keep its roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.

"We at the Culver City Police Department take great pride and are passionate about everything we do. We believe in, and practice a professional and proactive approach to police work, while valuing community partnerships. We measure our effectiveness through our response time, our case clearance, our crime prevention and reduction efforts, and by ensuring an effective Parking Enforcement program and an efficient flow of traffic. This grant will help us in achieving our goals by providing us the funding to target the most egregious of traffic law violators, while educating our community members through public outreach and education efforts."

-Chief Scott Bixby

After falling dramatically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions saw slight increases in 2011 and 2012. Particularly worrisome are recent increases in pedestrian and motorcycle fatalities and the dangers of distracting technologies.

This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk and drugged driving and speeding.

"California's roadways are still among the safest in the nation," said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. "But to meet future mobility, safety, and sustainability objectives, we must create safer roadways for all users. The Culver City Police Department will be using these and other resources to reach the vision we all share – Toward zero deaths, every one counts."

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Bike, pedestrian and other educational presentations

• DUI checkpoints

• DUI saturation patrols

• 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)

• Stakeout operations to observe the "worst-of-the-worst" repeat DUI offender probationers with suspended or revoked driver licenses

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.