The Sheriff’s Office received a grant award from the Missouri Department of Transportation / Division of Highway Safety, for the purpose of conducting traffic enforcement for hazardous moving violations during this period. Working in a combined effort with the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, the goal of all participating agencies is to reduce the number of fatalities as a result of motor vehicle accidents on state highways each year.
The grant application was completed and submitted by Major Rob Hills, which was approved and awarded the Sheriff’s Office just under $ 5,500 dollars of overtime salaries, to pay deputies for additional enforcement activities over the holiday travel periods in 2014 and 2015.
Between November 26 through November 30, deputies worked 33.5 hours of overtime traffic enforcement, which resulted in 85 traffic stops being conducted. During these traffic stops, 90 moving violations and 23 non-moving violations were encountered by deputies. Eight (8) citations were issued to offenders, along with two (2) arrests for drivers with revoked / suspended licenses, as well as one (1) driver encountered which resulted in additional charges for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.
“Our highways are travelled by our families and friends on a daily basis, every day of the year. The majority of the violations encountered during this enforcement period, were being committed by non-resident drivers traveling through our area to other destinations”, Sheriff Oberkrom stated.
“While we are concerned for all travelers utilizing our local roadways, we are particularly concerned as to the safety of our local citizens who are sharing the roadway with other drivers as these violations are taking place. Making Henry County a safer place to live and work continues to be our primary objective, which includes traffic enforcement”, Sheriff Oberkrom concluded.
