Department Called One of The Best For Efforts to Reduce Car Crashes Through Enforcement, Training and Education
By Laurie Phillips, San Luis Obispo Tribune
PASO ROBLES, Calif. - When it comes to traffic safety, police in Paso Robles last year did it better than any other department its size in California, a state agency has said.
The police department will receive a California Law Enforcement Challenge award Monday from the state Office of Traffic Safety, which co-sponsored it with the CHP.
The recognition was given based on policy and guidelines, officer training, public information and education, enforcement and effectiveness of the department’s efforts.
Paso was stacked against all of the state’s departments with 26 to 50 sworn officers.
Last year, noted Lt. Lisa Solomon, who leads the traffic team, traffic enforcement in the city increased 47 percent and the number of collisions increased just 2 percent over the year before. During 2002, she said, the number of wrecks grew by 10 percent over the previous year.
Solomon said these successes can be attributed to vigorous enforcement by all officers on patrol -- not just the team specifically assigned to traffic -- and a renewed emphasis throughout the department on promoting traffic safety.
Focusing on traffic is important, Solomon said, because “the city is growing, and as the population grows, the number of collisions increases.”
For that reason, she said, the department must look at traffic patterns, analyze where crashes happen and determine whether anything can be done -- by the department or the city’s engineers -- to alleviate more wrecks in those places.
The award includes special recognition of work by Officer Eric Mattke, who moved to Paso almost three years ago from the Southern California city of Santa Ana, where he also focused on traffic safety.
Since he arrived, Mattke has helped bring the city more than $200,000 in traffic-related grants and emphasized the importance of seat belt and speed enforcement and impaired driver detection and apprehension.
On Wednesday, several Paso residents praised the department’s work related to traffic safety, saying they’ve noticed more officers working at busy intersections and pulling over speeders during the last few years.
“You don’t just see the cops driving through the town,” said Jessica Riddle, who lives on Rambouillet Road. “You see them policing the area -- and keeping it a safe place to live.”