Sheriff Kent Oberkrom is pleased to announce that deputies of the Henry County Sheriff’s Office will be gearing up again this year and watching for hazardous moving violations on primary highways throughout Henry County over the holiday seasons. With a grant awarded by the Missouri Department of Transportation / Division of Highway Safety, and working in a combined effort with the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, deputies will be conducting vehicles stops for observed violations during grant enforcement periods. 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.“This is a competitive grant process and the application was completed and submitted by Major Rob Hills, which awarded the Sheriff’s Office with just over $ 9,100 dollars for overtime salaries”, Sheriff Oberkrom stated. “This same grant also allowed for the purchase of six (6) new traffic enforcement radar units during last year’s grant cycle, which have been installed in patrol vehicles, saving $ 5,400 dollars in county funds”, Sheriff Oberkrom continued.
Grant funding will pay deputies for additional enforcement activities over the holiday travel periods in 2016 and 2017, including various weekends throughout the summer months when the traffic volume drastically increases in Henry County.
Over the past several years, this same grant had been utilized over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve winter holidays, along with the Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day summer holidays.
Grant enforcement periods for 2015-2016 accounted for 495 moving violations and 101 non-moving violations being encountered by deputies, to include five (5) arrests for drivers with revoked / suspended licenses, four (4) arrests for no operator’s licenses, one (1) arrest for drug-related charges and one (1) arrest for an outstanding felony warrant, while paying overtime salaries for deputies in the amount of $6,000 dollars.
“Our local highways are being utilized by many more holiday travelers than what we normally encounter day-to-day, while our families, neighbors and friends are also using these roadways over the same periods with this increased volume in traffic. In an effort to make our roadways safer as we celebrate the holidays with our families, the active enforcement of dangerous moving violations is an important task that we feel we must undertake within our community”, Sheriff Oberkrom stated.
