Longview Police Release Statistics for Recently Completed S.T.E.P. Year

LONGVIEW — The Longview Police Department has released the year-end statistics for the recently concluded Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (S.T.E.P.) that ran from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013. Off-duty officers working on the grant program put in a total of 1,358 hours of additional traffic enforcement in the City, issuing 3,925 traffic citations and making 108 arrests during the year.

The breakdown of citations and arrests were:

Speeding citations: 2,532
Adult seatbelt citations: 694
Child seatbelt/safety seat citations: 33
Other citations: 666
DWI arrests: 40
Other arrests: 68

In the category of other arrests, S.T.E.P. Officers made on-view arrests for charges including felony possession of a controlled substance, unlawful carrying of a weapon, and a variety of other misdemeanor charges. Officers also served a total of 120 outstanding arrest warrants for a variety of charges.

The Comprehensive Selective Traffic Enforcement Program is funded by a grant awarded to the Police Department by the Texas Department of Transportation, using federal funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The program supplements traffic enforcement efforts of the Department by utilizing off-duty officers, working overtime, to conduct traffic enforcement without the interruption created by other duties that must be handled by on-duty officers. The STEP officers are able to focus solely on traffic enforcement, targeting the offenses of speeding, DWI, and seatbelt and child restraint violations. Although the program focuses on those offenses, any other traffic offenses witnessed by the officer may also be enforced. The Department began a new year of the program on October 1st of this year.