FCSO Gets $38K Grant for DUI Enforcement

Drunk and impaired drivers are likely to be getting more H.E.A.T. in Cumming and Forsyth County.

The state of Georgia has announced the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office received a major public safety partnership H.E.A.T. grant from the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety GOHS in Atlanta. H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic. The statewide H.E.A.T Project goal is 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. 

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety coordinates 16 Regional Traffic Enforcement Networks across the state to help enforce Georgia’s year-round speed, impaired driving and safety belt campaigns. The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office H.E.A.T. Unit will use the GOHS grant totaling $38,000 to develop and implement strategies to reduce local highway crashes, injuries and fatalities. 

“Agencies like Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office that have received this 2014 GOHS H.E.A.T. grant are committed members of the GOHS Traffic Enforcement Network, dedicated to protecting our citizens from drunk drivers," GOHS Director Harris Blackwood said in a press release. "Impaired driving is no accident and DUI is no victimless crime.” 

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. 

“The H.E.A.T. Project aims to increase the impaired driver apprehension rate. 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,” said Forsyth Sheriff Duane Piper. 

Many H.E.A.T. Units are 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. 

“This combined enforcement effort by police, sheriffs and state troopers is the kind of high visibility protection the public deserves on our highways,” Blackwood. 

GOHS is working overtime with more than 47,000 law enforcement officers covering all 159 counties in Georgia and using initiatives like the H.E.A.T. program to improve driver awareness and save lives. 

“Georgia’s H.E.A.T. Units and Operation Rolling THUNDER consistently save lives on our highways. We know from experience that H.E.A.T. Teams like Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office are an effective way to maximize our deterrent efforts with impaired drivers,” said Blackwood. 

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