Charleston police awarded $136k grant for DUI task force officers

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The Charleston Police Department have been awarded a $136,014 grant which will fund to officers to the department's DUI task force.

The grant was awarded from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety's Office of Highway Safety and will fund two officers in the task force for the next twelve months.

CPD officials say it is the second year in a row that the department has received grant funding for impaired driving enforcement.

Last year, the police department was awarded a grant of $227,950.  According to CPD, the two officers assigned to the DUI task force combined to arrest 87 impaired rivers during the grant period.

"While the number of impaired driving arrests increased during the past year, the number of roadway fatalities saw a dramatic decrease," stated a Charleston police release."In 2012, there were twelve traffic fatalities in the City of Charleston. In 2013, the number of traffic fatalities in the City of Charleston dropped by 50% to six. However, in each of those collisions, impairment was found to be a factor. To date in 2014, there have been six traffic fatalities of which impairment has been found to be a contributing factor in five."

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