NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — Normal Police Department released the results from the grant received from the Illinois Department of Transportation, cracking down on minor traffic violations.
“We get money from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s mission every year. The purpose of those grant funds is to kind of try and enhance traffic safety. We’re giving these funds to hire back additional officers to do specific targeted patrols for different violations,” said Darien Bachman, community engagement officer for the Normal Police Department.
Specific targeted patrols could include cracking down on speeding, not wearing a seat belt, distracted driving, driving under the influence and more. All of these are to make the roads safer in Normal.
“It’s not for us to go and hammer additional people with citations and things like that,” said Bachman. “What it comes down to is it’s an educational piece and getting somebody to slow down or put their phone down in a situation can reduce traffic accidents.”
The department saw increased enforcement around the town, better education on safe driving habits, as well as a reduction in dangerous driving behavior overall. 962 total traffic stops were made as a result of this grant, 884 resulting in traffic citations.
512 of those citations were speeding citations, 100 were seatbelt citations, 134 were for distracted driving, and another 134 were for other citations issued. Eight DUI arrests were made, as well as 14 traffic arrests and 13 criminal arrests.
“It’s all an education thing, and we’ll continue to educate our community as much as we can going into the next fiscal year,” he said.
The department hopes for the next year that the number of citations issued will go down, meaning fewer traffic violations will happen.
“We obviously hope each year to see those numbers decrease, because that means that there are fewer people out there who are committing these minor traffic violations,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know if that’s going to be the case, as there are always people on the roadway who are speeding or people who commonly use their cell phone because they think that they can get away with it.”
The police department has already received the OK from IDOT to receive the grant for the next fiscal year.
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