Rice Lake (WQOW) - An area police department is getting money to update their squad cars.
The Rice Lake Police Department has been awarded a four-thousand dollar grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The police department will use the money to purchase new radar equipment for one of its squads. The money will also help buy five driver's license scanners. Right now officers have to enter driver's license information by hand.
The department got the money for participating in the drive sober or get pulled over campaign in august.
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Rice Lake (Press Release) - For its participation in the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" nationwide crackdown on drunken driving from Aug. 16 to Sept. 3, 2012, Rice Lake Police Department will received a $4,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) Bureau of Transportation Safety to purchase 5 new driver's license scanners and a Stalker radar unit.
Drunken driving is prevalent in Wisconsin – and deadly. Last year, alcohol-related crashes in Wisconsin killed 225 people and injured nearly 3,000, according to WisDOT statistics. There were approximately 35,000 convictions for drunken driving offenses in Wisconsin in 2011. In Rice Lake there were 117 instances of drunken driving in 2011 and in 2012 there were 78.
"Because drunken drivers are deadly threats not just to themselves but to everyone else on our roads, our stringent enforcement efforts help save lives and prevent serious injuries," says Inv. Chad Thompson. "Using both education and enforcement, we are striving to deter people from getting behind the wheel if they're impaired. If more people make the responsible decision to not drive if they're not sober, we will make progress toward the goal of reducing the number of preventable traffic deaths to Zero in Wisconsin."
