LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office has received a $90,109.60 High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS).

According to the LCSO, funding for this grant is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is awarded based upon the partnership with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in helping to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities across the State of Georgia.

High Visibility Enforcement combines highly visible and proactive law enforcement to target a specific traffic safety issue designed to change unlawful and dangerous driving behaviors that contribute to most of the fatal and serious-injury traffic crashes on our roads.

Law enforcement efforts are combined with visibility elements and public notification on the enforcement campaign to educate the public on traffic safety and promote voluntary compliance with the law.

“Federal and state crash data show sustained enforcement of traffic laws reduces crashes and saves lives on our roads,” Allen Poole, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said. “GOHS will continue to partner with state and local law enforcement to implement projects and initiatives designed to protect everyone using our roads and to help reach our goal of zero traffic deaths in Georgia and our nation.”

“Once again we are thankful to Governor Kemp and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for providing the citizens of Lowndes County and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office this grant opportunity. With overall traffic fatalities down from last year to this year, I feel this grant is helping that continued reduction. While a reduction in fatalities is great, our goal is eliminating fatalities through the voluntary compliance of the traffic laws, and the use of safety restraints.” said Sheriff Ashley Paulk.

As law enforcement partners in the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over DUI and Click It Or Ticket seatbelt campaigns, the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office will also conduct mobilizations throughout the year in coordination with GOHS’s year-round waves of high visibility patrols, multi-jurisdictional sobriety checkpoints.

The grant will continue through September of 2025.

For more information on the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office’s award, contact Lieutenant Herb Bennett at (229)671-2900 or [email protected]. For more information on GOHS and its highway safety programs visit www.gahighwaysafety.org.

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