Full Notification

Nature of Incident: New Traffic Grant Awarded
Location: Ventura County
Date & Time: October 2015 to September 2016
Unit Responsible: Thousand Oaks Police - Traffic Bureau

Narrative:

THE VENTURA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE RECEIVES GRANT FOR SPECIAL TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT AND TRAFFIC ACCIDENT PREVENTION

In December 2014, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office on behalf of its five contract cities, applied for a traffic enforcement grant and has been awarded a $375,000.00 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The grant provides funding for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries. After careful consideration and analysis, OTS awarded funds to the cities of Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Moorpark. These three cities will use the funding as part of their ongoing commitment to keep our roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.

Thousand Oaks Assistant Police Chief Jim Fryhoff said, “We are looking forward to another successful grant period of operations, and are proud to now be working with the cities of Camarillo and Moorpark in our continued effort to make our public streets as safe as possible.”

After falling dramatically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions has been slowly rising. Particularly alarming are recent increases in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, the growing dangers of distracting technologies, and the emergence of drug-impaired driving as a major problem. This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk driving, speeding and crashes at intersections.

“Overall, California’s roadways are among the safest in the nation,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “But to meet future mobility, safety, and accessible transportation objectives, we have to reverse this recent trend in order to reach our common goal – zero deaths on our roadways. The Office of Traffic Safety and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office want to work with everyone to create a culture of traffic safety across Ventura County and the state.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:
• Educational presentations
• DUI checkpoints
• DUI saturation patrols
• Motorcycle safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety 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)
• Court “sting” operations to cite individuals driving from DUI court after ignoring their license suspension or revocation
• 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.

Prepared by: Brad Clifton, Sergeant
Media Release Date: October 27, 2015
Media Follow-Up Contact: Brad Clifton, Sergeant
[email protected]
Approved By: Jim Fryhoff, Captain
Mike Hartmann, Captain