Crime & Safety
SSPD Gets Major HEAT Grant Renewed to Reduce Aggressive Driving, Crashes
The $95,400 grant helps the Sandy Springs Police HEAT implement strategies to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities from drugs and alcohol, speed and aggressive driving.
From Sandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose
The Sandy Springs Police Department's grant for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic has been renewed in the amount of $95,400, from the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety in Atlanta.
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The HEAT unit focuses on reducing impaired driving crashes and excessive speeding; increasing the safety belt usage rate; and educating the public about traffic safety.
“Crashes involving impaired drivers killed 331 people across Georgia in 2009,” said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood. “The chance of a fatal crash involving drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol is much higher than the rate for fatal crashes not related to impairment.”
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H.E.A.T. programs based on impaired driving and speeding data include 22 Georgia counties and have covered most of Metro Atlanta. The H.E.A.T. initiative was designed to serve Georgia jurisdictions with the highest rates of crashes, injuries and deaths.
“The H.E.A.T. initiative seeks to increase the impaired driver arrests, reduce dangerous speeders, educate the public about the dangers of DUI and provide a high visibility enforcement profile in the communities that need it most,” Blackwood said
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