Law enforcement agencies across Indiana get millions to combat reckless driving

INDIANAPOLIS – More than 200 law enforcement agencies across Indiana now have thousands of dollars in additional funding to combat reckless driving.

This was made possible by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI), which recently awarded $ 6.5 million in road safety grants to departments to conduct overtime patrols and implement reckless driving strategies in Indiana.

The federal funds will be used to conduct high visibility patrols dealing with dangerous and impaired driving issues such as speeding, seat belts and distracted driving. It comes at a time when, statistically, more people are dying in road accidents on Indiana’s streets than they did before the pandemic.

“The numbers are pretty staggering and pretty sobering, and we’re just over 20,000 road fatalities nationwide in the first half of 2021 alone,” said Devon McDonald, executive director of the ICJI.

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That number is about 18.4% more than the same period last year, and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it is the largest increase in six months ever recorded in the history of the reporting system.

Indiana is also no stranger to the trend reported in the United States.

“In Indiana alone, we have around 683 road deaths in early October, an 8% increase over 2019,” said McDonald.

The data shows that if the pace continues, especially with the vacation travel season approaching, Indiana could top 900 road deaths by the end of the year, making it one of the deadliest years in the last decade.

Because of this, the ICJI has awarded millions to agencies to address the problem of reckless driving across the state.

“What we are trying to do with these resources in our partnership with these agencies is to save lives,” said McDonald. “It has been proven that when people are on the road and are seen, they slow down, make better decisions, use their seat belts, do not restrict their driving and keep the speed limit.”

“It is imperative that these gifts coincide with the holiday season to ensure that all of our loved ones have a seat at the table over Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner,” said McDonald.

Two agencies in particular received top honors from the ICJI, including the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which received $ 1.5 million in grants.

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An IMPD spokesman told FOX59, “With this recent funding from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, the IMPD will be able to step up our efforts to curb reckless driving. In the coming weeks the IMPD will decide how best to use these funds to address traffic surveillance across our city. “

Last month, the IMPD shared more about its district-wise approach to tackling reckless driving in hotspots across the city, as well as its efforts to crack down on reckless drivers in school zones.

The second agency to receive the other biggest award was the Indiana State Police for a grand total of $ 1 million.

“We are always grateful for our partnerships with other agencies, including the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, which works so hard to collect the data and provide us with information so that we can use that data to target our enforcement efforts and determine what those statistics show “us and how we can change those statistics,” said Sergeant John Perrine, public information officer at ISP.

Perrine said one fatal accident was too much, and he said the ISP’s goal was to reduce the number of fatal road accidents to zero as much as possible.

“It takes teamwork, and that’s what this grant is for, building a team so we can use each other and each other’s data to make the roads safer for everyone,” Perrine said. “Almost every single accident is preventable, so our goal is to step up our enforcement efforts. This increases our visibility. “

Perrine often said that enforcement efforts slow down speed simply because people see soldiers working on the streets.

“Our goal is to be seen. Our goal is to brake everyone so that our roads are safer for everyone. “

Like other beneficiary organizations, this grant will give ISP troops the additional ability to do overtime patrols.

“This grant will give our soldiers the opportunity to go out and work during their free time and target these aggressive drivers. “The root of all of these things is speed. Someone is in a hurry, they drive recklessly because they want to be fast, so our goal is to slow people down, and sometimes we can only do that by patrolling with high visibility. “

Another recipient authority for the Road Safety Grant is the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO).

“Every year we like to take part in the Institute for Criminal Justice scholarship. We were lucky enough to receive it. So it is always good news when we get the grants back, “said Andrew Barnhart, deputy director of JCSO.

“We have a problem, like every other area in Indiana and across the country, with reckless driving, speeding, driving in a frenzy and things like that, and these grants allow us to pay overtime for our extra patrols,” said Barnhart. “Unfortunately for some reason these things tend to come and go in spurts and we have had an unfortunate run here in Johnson County lately.”

According to ICJI, the road safety partnership of JCSO, Greenwood Police Department, and Franklin Police Department received a total of $ 82,500 between the three. Grants were given both to independent agencies and to road safety partnerships made up of several agencies.

“When we have MPs working on the street, they take calls and respond to crashes and the like, so there isn’t always that much time to rush enforcement and work while enforcement is intoxicated and things we do would have liked to help pay the overtime for additional substitutes specifically for this. “

Barnhart said the JCSO is also working with the GPD and FPD when it comes to traffic enforcement in the county.

“We’ve always had a situation where officials from Franklin and Greenwood would also come to areas of the county and vice versa to help us spread this across the county. We’re not just focusing on the area they would traditionally work in, ”said Barnhart.

Several Delaware County agencies, including the Muncie Police Department, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, the Daleville Police Department, and the Eaton Police Department, another road safety partnership, received a combined $ 121,000 to combat reckless driving.

MPD’s scholarship coordinator told FOX59 that the money will be split among the four departments, with several receiving more based on the number of officials working on the scholarship, and that more will be distributed to the other agencies if necessary.

The ministry is also working with local authorities to take additional measures to combat reckless driving, such as a pilot program to enforce bus stop enforcement and protect children traveling to and from schools. MPD said this grant will only help improve its ongoing reckless driving enforcement efforts.

When it comes to how the agencies should use the federal grants received, the ICJI said it is easy to do and everyone will follow the same guidelines.

“The zero tolerance and overtime patrols, that’s exactly what we mean. An officer – that’s all overtime – so if an officer chooses to give these grants, he does it in his spare time, ”said McDonald.

The IJCI doesn’t necessarily require a quote to be written, but if a person is stopped, it must be a “meaningful contact,” according to McDonald, the agency said.

“These are federal grants. We keep track of everything. We keep track of the number of hours these officers work per service to the actual contacts they have. As a result, there is a lot of information gathered that we use to ensure that these grant funds are used appropriately, ”said McDonald.

“When grant money comes in, it also includes a list of specific things that money can or should be used to make the road safer,” Perrine said.

Both ISP and JCSO said they want drivers to understand the burden they carry when on the road driving a vehicle, and said their authorities will use that grant money to step up patrols and enforcement Step up to show them that they are not on the move Tickets are to be written, they are out there to save lives and promote safe driving.

“We are personally affected by these accidents when we have to deal with them, when we see teenagers, young adults and older adults who should know better, who are seriously injured or killed in these accidents, that it has a great impact on us and we want “everyone to go home safely,” said Barnhart.

“While first responders and police have the burden of enforcing this safety on our roads, safety is everyone’s responsibility, not just the police, not just the fire department,” said Perrine. “Everyone has to do their part and when someone drives recklessly and dangerously is selfish and that selfish driving often causes a devastating accident and then families, communities, first responders, the effects of these deadly crashes are endless.”

According to the ICJI, the grants were awarded to agencies from federal funds in October.

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Law enforcement agencies across Indiana get millions to combat reckless driving