Safety grant puts more officers on the streets

The Ponca City Police Department is continuing its partnership with the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office in 2016.

Through a competitive grant process, the Police Department was awarded funds to put additional officers on the streets to enforce traffic laws and keep the streets safer. Continuing the campaign to target aggressive and drunken or drugged drivers and remove them from the streets is only part of the campaign. The bottom line is traffic enforcement.

Patrol Division Capt. Earl Watkins reminds drivers that not wearing a safety belt is a primary reason for an officer to make a traffic stop, even if no other driving violations are observed. An officer spotting a driver texting and driving will get a driver pulled over very quickly too; distracted drivers cause accidents.

Drunken and drugged drivers cause accidents. Officers are constantly on the lookout for impaired drivers, hoping to remove them from the streets before they cause an accident.

“The Oklahoma Highway Office grant funding allows us to hire extra officers to remove impaired drivers from the streets of Ponca City,” Watkins said.