PRESS RELEASE
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Awarded $32,240.159 Grant for Local DUI Enforcement
The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety has announced that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is one of 17 law enforcement agencies in Georgia to receive a Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic grant for the 2017/18 grant season. Referred to as a H.E.A.T. grant, our department award totals $32,240.59.
The goal of the H.E.A.T. program is to combat crashes, injuries, and fatalities caused by impaired driving and speeding, while also increasing seatbelt use and educating the public about traffic safety and the dangers of DUI.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office H.E.A.T Unit will use the grant from GOHS to develop and implement strategies to reduce local traffic crashes due to aggressive and dangerous driving behaviors.
“Agencies like the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office receive this H.E.A.T. grants because they have shown a particular dedication to protecting their citizens from impaired drivers,” said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood. “This dedication is crucial because alcohol-related crash deaths still account for 25 percent of traffic fatalities in Georgia. We are grateful to Sheriff Phil Miller and his staff for their continued hard work.”
Totaling $3.2 million for 2017, H.E.A.T. grants fund specialize traffic enforcement units in counties throughout the state. The program was designed to assist Georgia jurisdictions with the highest rates of traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities with grants awarded based on impaired driving and speeding data.
Sheriff Tim Pounds and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are very pleased and appreciative to be receiving this grant for the eleventh consecutive year in a row. By receiving this grant once again we will be able to continue to have a specialized unit that focuses on traffic safety and traffic enforcement to help keep our county roadways and citizens safe.
As law enforcement partners in the Operation Zero Tolerance DUI and Click It or Ticket seatbelt campaigns, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will also conduct mobilizations throughout the year in coordination with GOHS’s year-round waves of high visibility patrols, multi-jurisdictional road checks, and sobriety checkpoints.
For more information about the H.E.A.T. program or any other GOHS campaign, visit www.gahighwaysafety.org or call 404-656-6996.