Pittsburg, KS (March 14, 2017)-During the City Council Meeting on March 14, Jim Hanni of AAA Kansas, presentedthe Pittsburg Police Department with their sixth AAA Community Traffic Safety Award. The last five have been at the highest level of platinum. “No other agency, sheriff or PD has a more consistent track record of excellence than the Pittsburg PD,” said Jim Hanni.

They were recognized for their continued support of the SAFE program at Pittsburg and St. Mary’s High Schools; For continuing to enforce a departmental policy requiring the use of seat belts; for deployment of new software to analyze traffic crashes and use a data drive approach to crime and traffic safety – Identifying hot spots to more efficiently place resources to reduce crime in traffic safety.

In Education, the Department was recognized for operating a child safety seat fitting station to help parents, as well as child safety seat checkup events; In Enforcement, they were recognized for their Special Traffic Enforcement efforts that have addressed seat belt usage, CPS and impaired driving; and for their PSU School Start-Up Enforcement to address DUI and seat belt issues, the first two weekends PSU is in session.

The Pittsburg Police Department's efforts show in the statistics:

• Click It Or Ticket violations have gone from 20 in ’09 to 248 in ‘13
• Adult seat belt use continues to climb. From 72% in ’11 to 85% in ‘15
• TEEN belt use, from 69% to 86% over the same period
• Child Passenger seat usage, from 77 to 88%
• The SAFE Schools now are at 96% from 84% in 2011.
• Alcohol arrests have risen from 100 in 2012 to 214 in 2015
• Accordingly, teen crashes dropped from 42 in ‘11 down to 18 in the past 5 yrs
• Alcohol crashes have almost been eliminated, from 31 in ’11 down to 2 in ‘15
• Crash injuries have dropped from 97 in ’11 to a remarkable 20 in 2015
• Only have been 2 fatalities in the past 5 years, 3 of those years have had NONE.

The purpose of the AAA Kansas Community Traffic Safety Award is to encourage Kansas communities and counties to address local traffic safety issues in a coordinated and cost-effective way, and recognize them accordingly. They receive points for the various programs they conduct on traffic safety enforcement, education and engineering and emergency response -- and for demonstrating success from those programs.

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AAA provides automotive, travel and insurance services to 57 million members nationwide and more than 335,000 members in Kansas. AAA advocates for the safety and mobility of its members and has been committed to outstanding road service for more than 100 years.  The not-for-profit, fully tax-paying member organization works on behalf of motorists, who can now map a route, find local gas prices, discover discounts, book a hotel and track their roadside assistance service with the AAA Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android.  For more information, visit www.AAA.com.