Three local law enforcement agencies benefited from a recent series of grants from the Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety.
The coalition serves a 25-county area in Southeast Missouri and awarded more than $55,000 to support agencies throughout its service area.
Among the local agencies receiving grants were the Bernie Police Department, the Carter County Sheriff’s Office and the Malden Police Department.
Bernie PD received reflective vests for its officers. The vests will make the job safer for the department’s officers, said Bernie Police Chief Justin Allen.
“The vests (will be) used to make officers visible on the side of the highway for their safety at nighttime, or even in the daytime,” Allen said.
The Carter County Sheriff’s Office has been awarded radars for its patrol vehicles — a need the department could not otherwise afford, said Sheriff Dustin Boyer.
“Basically, with rising fuel costs and the cost of everything going up, we don’t really have a budget for purchasing equipment we need like this,” Boyer said. “Without this, we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Meanwhile, the grant means high-visibility rain jackets for the Malden Police Department — again, an amenity which will make the job safer for officers.
“Only a few of our officers had good, high-visibility rain jackets to use,” said Major Bobby Jones, Malden’s assistant police chief. “But now every road officer in our department is equipped with a high-visibility rain jacket.”
Among the equipment awarded to other departments are flare kits, medical trauma kits, portable breathalyzer tests, radars, raincoats and traffic cones.
The Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety believes education, public policy, enforcement, engineering and emergency response are at the core of making the state’s roads safer, which is why the agency awards grants to local and area law-enforcement agencies,
The grants cover the cost of equipment in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries on roadways.
“We are excited to give back to our communities and assist 26 local law enforcement agencies in driving Missouri toward zero roadway fatalities.” said Ashley Metelski, a representative for the Southeast Coalition for Roadway Safety. “These agencies are vital for emergency response in addition to enforcement.”