Community Corner
Sheriff's Office Awarded Grant for DUI Enforcement
The money will be used to fund a project to reduce local deaths and injuries from impaired driving crashes and excessive speeding.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office has been awarded a public safety grant for an anti-DUI program aimed at developing and implementing strategies to reduce local highway crashes, injuries and fatalities, according to a recent press release.
The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) in Atlanta awarded the $69,800 H.E.A.T. (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic) grant to the sheriff’s office.
The statewide H.E.A.T. project goal is designed to combat deaths and injuries from impaired driving crashes and excessive speeding by increasing the use of safety belts while educating the public about traffic safety and the dangers of DUI.
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“The H.E.A.T Project aims to increase the impaired driver apprehension rate,” said Sheriff Ted Paxton. "H.E.A.T. Units like ours help accomplish that goal through the systematic delivery of effective DUI and aggressive driving countermeasures and by providing a higher traffic enforcement profile in the community."
GOHS Director Harris Blackwood said, “Agencies like the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office that have received this 2013 GOHS H.E.A.T. grant are committed members of the GOHS Traffic Enforcement Network, dedicated to protecting our citizens from drunk drivers. Impaired driving is no accident and DUI is no victimless crime.”
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As law enforcement partners in the Operation Zero Tolerance DUI initiatives and the Click It Or Ticket seatbelt campaign mobilizations, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office H.E.A.T. Team will coordinate with GOHS during year-round waves of high visibility concentrated patrols, multi-jurisdictional road checks, and sobriety checkpoints.
Many H.E.A.T. Units area also deployed as part of a joint highway safety response team called Rolling THUNDER, deployed to help reduce high numbers of traffic deaths in other high-risk Georgia communities.
“Georgia’s H.E.A.T. Units and Operation Rolling THUNDER consistently save lives on our highways," said Blackwood. "We know from experience that H.E.A.T. Teams like the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office are an effective way to maximize our deterrent efforts with impaired drivers."
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