CANTON – The Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Traffic Safety Office has awarded the Stark County Sheriff’s Office $627,092 in federal traffic safety funding for federal fiscal year Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.

The funding is a total of four individual grants awarded to the Sheriff’s Office for Impaired Driver/Speed ​​Enforcement, the Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor, the Safe Communities Program, and the county-wide OVI Task Force, according to a news release.

“These funds are critical in ensuring that we are doing everything we possibly can to keep our local community safe,” said Sheriff George T. Maier. “Based on crash data, enforcement in the areas of impaired driving, speed, and restraint use are priorities in Stark County, and we are committed to working with our partners at the state and local levels to address these safety issues.”

Alcohol, OVI, and speed-related crashes are the leading cause of fatal and serious-injury crashes in Stark County.

To reduce this statistic, the Stark County Sheriff’s Office and its partners will conduct high-visibility enforcement working overtime hours with grant funds. Targeted areas include, but are not limited to OVI, drug driving, speed, restraint use and child safety seats.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Sheriff’s Office receives more than $627,000 in traffic safety grants