LEGISLATIVE ACTION ITEM
SPONSOR: Grover C. Robinson, IV, Mayor
SUBJECT:
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FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) SUBGRANT FOR HIGHWAY TRAFFIC FUNDS
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RECOMMENDATION:
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That City Council accept the FY 2021 Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Subgrant for Highway Traffic Safety Funds in the amount of $36,000. Further, that City Council authorize the Mayor to take all actions necessary relating to the finalization of the grant. Finally, that City Council adopt the supplemental budget resolution appropriating grant funds.
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HEARING REQUIRED: No Hearing Required
SUMMARY:
The traffic-related statistics, to include Impaired Driving offenses, are continuing to rise within the City of Pensacola. The Pensacola Police Department (PPD) has significantly increased our efforts to make the roadways safer. The PPD created a full-time DUI Unit and received separate impaired driving enforcement grant funding in June 2019. The DUI Unit has been instrumental in educating PPD officers, educating the community, and enforcing careless, reckless, and impaired driving. In addition to the DUI Unit officer, patrol officers have been working overtime via FDOT Subgrant funding to combat these statistics. The PPD is determined to increase efforts and is planning to add two additional full-time officers to the DUI Unit in the upcoming year. However, the DUI Unit’s efforts should always be supplemented with extra enforcement shifts to combat impaired driving offenses. With this in mind, the PPD requests overtime salary and benefits to pay for additional officers to conduct high visibility enforcement activities. The salary and benefits will not be applied to the permanent full-time positions but instead, be utilized to allow officers to work additional hours.
Over the past two fiscal years, PPD created a breath testing room and purchased two Intoxilyzer 8000 instruments. The Intoxilyzer 8000 instruments are inspected each month as required by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Alcohol Testing Program. The PPD’s current simulators are beginning to be irreparable. Most of the simulators are over twenty years old, with one of them being almost thirty years old. The PPD needs to replace five simulators to continue inspecting the Intoxilyzer 8000 instruments.
With the FDOT Subgrant funding, PPD will utilize countermeasures detailed in NHTSA night Edition of the “Countermeasures that Work (CTW): A Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide for State Highway Safety Offices.” Specifically, the CTW’s founder under Chapter 1: Alcohol and Drug-Impaired Driving.
CTW Chapter 1) Section 2. Subsections 2.1 and 2.2; Section 6. Subsection 6.2; Section 7. Subsection 7.1. PPD will conduct three publicized checkpoints and/or publicized high visibility enforcement (HVE) saturation patrols per quarter.
The purpose of checkpoints is to deter driving after drinking by increasing the perceived risk of arrest. To do this, checkpoints should be highly visible, publicized extensively, and conducted regularly as part of an ongoing checkpoint program. A secondary value of publicized sobriety checkpoint programs is that checkpoints may also be used to check for valid driver licenses, safety belt use, outstanding warrants, stolen vehicles, and other traffic criminal infractions.
All checkpoints conducted will be documents through either using an FDOT Impaired Driving High Visibility Enforcement Activity Report for each officer receiving overtime reimbursement under this Subgrant or an after-action report.
PPD will continue to educate the youth in area schools by periodically speaking at the school events and public functions. The PPD will work closely with Escambia County School District and the Santa Rosa County School District to promote impaired driving awareness and discuss the dangers and destructive behavior associated with impaired driving. The PPD recently purchased an impaired and distracted driving simulated course to educate the public and youth in our schools.
PPD will conduct a public engagement campaign through the uses of local media outlets/social media/press releases to raise awareness of the dangers of impaired driving citywide at least two times per quarter. PPD will also participate in NHTSA’s National Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaigns throughout the year. PPD, in conjunction with NHTSA and FDOT traffic/impaired driving campaigns, will publicly announce enforcement efforts via PPD’s Public Information Officer.
PRIOR ACTION:
None
FUNDING:
Budget: $36,000
Actual: $30,000 Overtime Salary & Benefits
6,000 Breath Alcohol Simulators
$36,000
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Adoption of the supplemental budget resolution will appropriate the grant funds.
CITY ATTORNEY REVIEW: Yes
3/2/2021
STAFF CONTACT:
Keith Wilkins, City Administrator
Kevin Christman, Interim Police Chief
ATTACHMENTS:
1) FDOT Subgrant for Highway Traffic Safety Funds, Contract No. G1S99
2) Supplemental Budget Resolution No. 2021-12
3) Supplemental Budget Explanation No. 2021-12
PRESENTATION: No end