No grant for BPD this year

Because drivers in, around and through the Village of Brockport have adopted the habit of buckling up, the police department was told they "didn't write enough tickets" to qualify for a Buckle Up New York (BUNY) grant this time around.

Motorists traveling along East Avenue on November 21 likely noticed the group of state and village police as they were doing a seat belt checkpoint.

"We had to prove our commitment to the buckle up concept and show the state that we are committed to issuing tickets to drivers who don't follow the law," Sergeant Doug Ziegler said. "We invited the troopers to come out and between their officers and ours, in a four hour period, we wrote 12 tickets - four were for seatbelt violations and eight were for other traffic violations."

Ziegler said the checkpoint proved to state officials that local law enforcement is, and has been, diligent in enforcing the seatbelt laws.

"Part of the rejection letter on the grant said that because of the size of our jurisdiction and the number of motorists that travel through here, we should have written more tickets," Ziegler said.

Although the BPD was denied the grant for this year, they are able to apply in February 2006 for the October 2006-2007 grant cycle.

"Even though we didn't receive the grant funds, I want to thank the drivers for keeping our community safe - the fact that we don't have to issue seatbelt violation tickets speaks volumes not only for the police force but for the motorists," Ziegler said.

Police Chief Dan Varrenti said that hopefully in the future the department will get the grant funds back. "It's not a huge amount but it helps," he said.

During the grant period in 2003, Ziegler said the department issued eight seatbelt tickets and in 2004, they issued 15.

November 27, 2005