CARIBOU, Maine — The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety awarded the Caribou Police Department $19,250 for programs in 2018 and already has presented the department $24,900 for 2019 that will help pay for an extra officer, according to Caribou PD Administrative Assistant Laura Adams.
Funds in 2018 went toward four programs: municipal and county speed enforcement; high visibility distracted driving enforcement; evidence based impaired driving high visibility enforcement; and the “Click it or Ticket/Buckle Up No Excuses” high visibility enforcement campaign.
The first three grants ran from Feb. 1 to Sept. 15. Officers stopped 108 vehicles, issued 41 speeding tickets, and an additional 20 criminal and traffic summonses for the speed enforcement program, and stopped 190 vehicles, issued 21 distracted driving related summonses, wrote 42 distracted driving related warnings, issued 40 other criminal and traffic summonses, and even arrested five people on warrants for the distracted driving campaign.
For the evidence based impaired driving campaign, Caribou PD held two separate two-week high visibility campaigns in which 81 vehicles were stopped and three individuals were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
The fourth campaign, “Click it or Ticket,” ran from May 21 to June 3, and officers stopped a total of 88 vehicles and issued 65 seat belt related summonses.
The department will used the new funding for these campaigns in 2019 to hire an extra officer through September. 2019, Adams said.
“One of the hardest things a law enforcement officer has to do is notify a family that their loved one has been killed in a motor vehicle crash,” she said. “The goal of these grants is to reduce crashes, ultimately reducing fatalities and serious injuries. We value the grant money from the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety and hope it makes a difference. Please drive safe.”
