The Citrus Heights Police Department (CHPD) was presented with a “first place” award by the California Highway Patrol last week, being recognized for local efforts to reduce collisions and improve traffic safety in a statewide competition.
Competing in the 2014 California Law Enforcement Challenge, CHPD earned the top honor in the mid-sized municipal law enforcement agency category, which included agencies with 76 to 150 sworn officers. According to the CHP web site, Visalia Police Department placed second and South San Francisco Police Department placed third.
“The award signifies the hard work of the men and women of the Citrus Heights Police Department, who work tirelessly to improve traffic safety for their community,” police said Monday, in a news release authored by Det. Chad Morris.
The annual law enforcement challenge is a competition between similarly sized agencies for the best traffic safety programs in California, which focuses on efforts related to impaired driving, protecting vehicle occupants, speed awareness, and “traffic safety issues unique to the agency’s jurisdiction,” according to the CHP web site. The competition also assesses how agencies identified traffic problems through community input, crash analyses, speed and seat belt surveys, and what outcomes resulted from changes implemented.
Items on the competition’s application form also include a place for reporting statistics on prior year’s total collisions and fatalities within the agency’s jurisdiction. According to police, there were no pedestrian or vehicle-related fatalities in Citrus Heights during 2014, although there have been at least three pedestrian fatalities in 2015.
[Related: Pedestrian fatality on Auburn Blvd marks 3rd killed this year]
Citrus Heights police were also awarded for their utilization of technology to improve traffic safety in the 2014 competition. Previously, CHPD earned second place recognition in 2012.
