The Park Forest Police Department was awarded a grant directed at saving lives and reducing traffic crashes.
For the upcoming federal fiscal year, PFPD received the 2024 Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) grant to conduct additional traffic safety enforcement efforts.
The STEP program focuses on high-visibility enforcement and strategies aimed at saving lives and preventing injuries by reducing traffic accidents.
The STEP grant is funded through federal highway safety funds provided by the Illinois Department of Transportation and has a maximum award amount of $50,000.
Park Forest Police Chief Brian Rzyski said this grant will help the department keep drivers safe in the Village. "The primary goal is to save lives," Rzyski said. "With this grant, we can improve our road safety efforts and save lives. The mission is to make traveling through the Village safer through directed, proactive patrols and to stop, cite, and arrest those who choose to violate traffic laws."
Rzyski said the department is committed to changing driver behavior and making the roadways a safer place to be a driver and passenger.
Park Forest Police will conduct more enforcement efforts to increase mandatory and optional campaign enforcement dates. The grant year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
The efforts focus on the leading crash causes, which include failure to yield, occupant restraint violations, impaired driving, speeding, disobeying traffic control signals, and electronic device use.