Sheriff’s Office awarded state grant

VW independent staff/submitted information

The Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office has been named as a recipient of a $47,708.06 grant to be used for overtime hours used to reduce traffic-related fatal crashes that involve impaired driving via alcohol or drugs, seat belt usage, speed, aggressive driving, motorcycles, and failure to yield. The announcement was made on Monday by the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

The local grant, which is coming from the state’s Impaired Driving Enforcement and Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, is one of 91 grants were awarded to 54 sheriff’s offices and 37 police departments statewide. The Mercer County Sheriff’s Office received a similar grant of $50,088.02.

In all, a total of 189 grants worth $24 million were awarded throughout Ohio, with 159 grants going toward 145 different local agencies in 63 counties, and 30 grants going toward statewide initiatives. All grants support the efforts of safety partners statewide and focus on traffic safety priority areas.

Programs that will be funded with traffic safety grants include:

• Statewide Programming ($13,638,530.00) – 30 grants were awarded to 18 agencies (including four state agencies) to conduct education, enforcement, and awareness initiatives statewide to address traffic safety-related priority areas.
• Impaired Driving Enforcement and Selective Traffic Enforcement Program ($5,589,225.86) – 91 grants were awarded to 54 sheriff’s offices and 37 police departments for overtime hours used to reduce traffic-related fatal crashes that involve impaired driving via alcohol or drugs, seat belt usage, speed, aggressive driving, motorcycles, and failure to yield.
• Summer Holiday Enforcement Program ($270,961.66) – 14 grants were awarded to local police departments for summer overtime hours used to reduce traffic-related fatal crashes that involve impaired driving via alcohol or drugs, seat belt usage, speed, aggressive driving, motorcycles, and failure to yield.
• Dedicated Traffic Enforcement Program ($159,002.59) – 2 grants were awarded to one sheriff’s office and one police department for a pilot program to help fund a dedicated traffic enforcement officer to reduce traffic-related fatal crashes that involve impaired driving via alcohol or drugs, seat belt usage, speed, aggressive driving, motorcycles, and failure to yield.  This pilot program is primarily intended to help fund the salary of the dedicated officer in a step-down manner (100% first year, 50% second year, 25% third year) as the agency absorbs the cost.
• Countywide OVI Task Forces ($2,408,786.10) – 10 grants were awarded to agencies to conduct countywide high visibility enforcement, public awareness, and impaired driving initiatives.
• Safe Community programs ($2,294,787.57) – 42 countywide grants were awarded to communities to address traffic safety issues that involve impaired driving via alcohol or drugs, seat belt usage, distracted driving, youthful driving, and motorcycles. Ohio’s Safe Communities network uses local coalitions to deliver traffic safety messages and programs throughout the year at the local level.

“Ohio is on track to see a decline in fatal crashes this year, but we have much more work to do,” said Emily Davidson, Ohio Traffic Safety Office director. “In recent years, Ohio has seen encouraging improvements in some safety areas, such as an increase in seat belt use and a decrease in distracted driving. These grant funds will allow us to keep making progress.”

The FFY 2025 competitive grant process solicited grant proposals from state agencies, non-profit organizations, colleges, universities, hospitals, political subdivisions, and other interested groups within selected Ohio counties and jurisdictions based upon the number of fatal crashes.