Consideration and Approval of Grant Agreement:  Acceptance of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety Proposition 207 Grant Award for Equipment.

The Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) has allocated grant money to cities across Arizona after the passage of Proposition 207 which legalized recreational marijuana use, for those over 21, across the state.  The goal of these funds is to assist the City of Flagstaff and other cities around the state to continue to keep our roadways safe with the passage of the new law.  We are anticipating more impaired drivers on the roadway with the passage of Proposition 207, and our mission is to protect and preserve life and property of Flagstaff citizens through traffic enforcement and education.

We are looking to add two new motorcycles to our fleet for our traffic enforcement squad which will increase our presence and ability to detect and contact impaired drivers on the roadway.  We are also looking to add ten in-car mounted radar units which will be able to assist our officers in detecting speeding drivers.  Speed violations are one of the leading causes of collisions in Flagstaff and a strong National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHTSA) indicator of impaired driving. 

Additionally, saliva-based drug testing technology has improved dramatically over the last few years, and we are requesting to add four state of the art Drager saliva drug testing devices to our inventory.  These devices are utilized on the roadside to obtain an immediate drug panel from the impaired driver to strengthen our ability to detect and prosecute driving under the influence cases. 

The purchase of this equipment will immediately be implemented to keep Flagstaff roadways safer which is in support of our mission and value statement to protect and preserve life.  There will be zero city match requirement as this project is completely funded by GOHS.  In 2020, the City of Flagstaff experienced 99 impaired driver related collisions.  It is the police department's goal to partner with the community to reduce these annual statistics going forward.

The grant award to the city is for $94,216.70, and the grant covers all costs of the equipment.  The two new motorcycles will replace older and outdated equipment that have a higher maintenance cost to the city.  There will be no new costs to the city.  This grant is budgeted as part of the upcoming FY 2021-22 budget.

Policy Impact: The approval of this grant will have no direct impact on any policies of the Flagstaff Police Department.

Connection to Council Goal, Regional Plan, CAAP, and/or Strategic Plan: Effective Governance - Regional Plan (2030) - Planning, Public Safety, Goal PF.3 Provide high-quality emergency response and public safety services.

Has There Been Previous Council Decision on This: No, this is a new grant initiative funded by GOHS to keep our roadways safer after the passage of Prop 207.  

Many jurisdictions that have already legalized marijuana have experienced an increased number of collisions and injury-related collisions from drug impaired drivers being on the roadway.  These grant funds directly assist the Flagstaff Police Department with the equipment to detect impaired driving behavior, identify impaired drivers, and make our streets safer for all of our citizens.  

This new technology and equipment will assist our officers with conducting more thorough driving under the influence investigations as well as provide them the equipment to detect motorists who are committing speed violations which endangers the members of our community.

If approved the grant would allow for $94,216.70 to put toward state of the art equipment to make our roadways safer and reduce collisions and injury-related collisions due to speeding and impaired driving.

Our goal is to provide education to our community through public safety announcements, educational events, and enforcement efforts as well as community policing efforts such as the impaired driving section of our in-house Citizen's Academy.  Our community presence and community education will hopefully deter impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.