For this reason, the enforcement of motor vehicle laws, as well as public education on traffic safety related issues, has become a high priority for both the Town of Shelburne and the Shelburne Police Department. The primary goal of our safety efforts is the reduction of injury and loss of life due to serious vehicle collisions within the Town limits.

TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS:

For more information about our Traffic Enforcement Programs, please click on that topic.

COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE PROGRAM

DRIVING UNDER the INFLUENCE PROGRAM

OCCUPANT PROTECTION PROGRAM

SPEED ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM

PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS:

The Shelburne Police Department responded to 8,890 complaints in 2006, an increase of 25% over the 7,135 complaints answered in 2005.  We believe that this increase is in part due to the Shelburne Road construction project, in combination with the public becoming more aware of services that we offer which are highly advertised in Shelburne.  We are proud that we have been able to expand our services to our community, while still being able to participate in a substantial number of motor vehicle, and occupant protection enforcement efforts.  We are impressed that we were able to accomplish these goals, while at times during 2006; we were down by 1 full-time officer, due to military leave and employment status changes.

The total number of motor vehicle crashes decreased in 2006 when compared to the past year.  In 2006 there were a total of 212 motor vehicle crashes within the Town; this is a decrease of approximately 12%, when compared to the 240 crashes in 2005.  We attribute this decrease, in part, to our numerous efforts to increase our motor vehicle enforcement efforts, by increasing staffing levels during peak crash times.

These 212 crashes involved property damage or moderate to serious bodily injury, with 31 requiring transport by Ambulance.  It is estimated that less then 5% of our total motor vehicle crashes involved alcohol, with seven resulting in DUI arrests.  We estimate that approximately 25% of all motor vehicle crashes are due in part to speeding.  This increase has tied officer's up on longer crash investigations and has hampered their abilities to take proactive crash prevention measures, such as motor vehicle, commercial motor vehicle and DUI enforcement.

Since 1996, the number of injuries and fatalities that have resulted from motor vehicle crashes has steadily gone down.  The Shelburne Police have been able to hold the fatality rate to two deaths resulting from a motor vehicle crashes in the past ten years.

In 1992, we had a high rate of DUI arrests, with 102 occurrences.  Since that time, we have seen a decrease, with a total number of DUI arrests of 52 in 2006.  We feel this is due in part to our vigorous enforcement efforts, and additional participation in enforcement campaigns on the local, State and Federal levels.  The officers directly accomplished this through a variety of means, including saturation patrol and sobriety checkpoints.  We also noticed an increase in the number of drivers arrested or cited for driving while license suspended.  Many of these suspended drivers have lost their privilege to operate due to previous alcohol related offenses.  Our top months for DUI enforcement efforts were January, July and August.  In January we had 7 DUI arrest, 8 in July and 7 in August.  We feel that these numbers are commendable for an agency of our size, and can partially be attributed to our Governors Highway Safety Program funded DUI Grant.  These efforts are in addition to our participation in the July and December Governors Highways Safety DUI campaigns.  During these campaigns we provided officers for both saturation patrols, as well as checkpoints.

During our DUI Grant enforcement efforts FY05-06, we were able to write a total of 85 tickets, 2 seatbelt violations and 0 child seat violations totaling $8,643 in fines.  Due to our Grant, we were able to remove 14 intoxicated or impaired drivers from the road resulting in arrest, and cited 4 minors for possession of alcohol.

A total of 1,672 Vermont Traffic Citations were issued by the Shelburne Police Department in 2006.  These included citation for all traffic offenses.  This is a total increase of approximately 30% over the 1,288 traffic citations issued in 2005.  The top three months for traffic citations issued by the Shelburne Police Department were June, July and August, during these months 556 traffic citations were issued.  Our top three months for seatbelt violations were May, June and November, totaling 40 traffic citations

Shelburne Police Department reported a 3% decrease in the number of warning issued in 2006 with a total of 954, down from 981 in the year 2005.  The top tree months for motor vehicle violation warnings were March, August and September, for a total of 355 warnings.  However, per the Shelburne Police Department policies, no warnings were issued for Child Seat violations, or Seatbelt Use violations.

We feel that these changes are in part due to our increased participation in special enforcement details throughout the year, and our willingness to educate the public on motor vehicle violations.  We also believe that the 2006 Shelburne Road construction work has slowed many people down, and increased usage and congestion on secondary roads also increased the speeds of many motorists.

The Shelburne Police Department participated in the Vermont "Click-It or Ticket" Campaign, where Vermont dropped 15% from years past to 82.4% seatbelt usage rate, maintaining a respectable position nationally.  In May's "Click-It or Ticket" Campaign our Department met, and exceeded the Goals set by Governors Highway Safety Program, as we attended 6 events.  Our Officers made 42 contacts, issued 24 motor vehicle violation citations; with 7 Seatbelt violations issued and no Child Passenger violation detected.  The second "Click-It or Ticket" Campaign held in November, resulted in 11 events with 424 contacts, issuing 23 motor vehicle citations; with 8 Seatbelt violations issued and no Child Passenger violations detected.

In 2006, Shelburne Police participated in the Vermont Safety Belt Observation Survey.  The Survey was conducted prior to, and after the May "Click-It or Ticket" Campaign.  These results were incorporated in the 2006 Vermont Strategic Highway Safety Plan.  In all of the areas we saw a positive improvement in the percentage of Seatbelt Use by operators after the "Click-It or Ticket" Campaign, reinforcing the fact that Public Education and Enforcement combined do make a difference.