Santa Maria Police Department Receives CHP Grant to Combat Impaired Driving
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - The Santa Maria Police Department (SMPD) was one of several local law enforcement agencies to be awarded grant funding by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to help fight impaired driving.
According to the CHP, it awarded grants to 160 law enforcement agencies to help support enforcement operations and training, as well as conduct public education campaigns through community events and presentations.
CHP added the funding comes through the voter-approved Proposition 64, which directs the department to administer grants for impaired driving education, prevention, and enforcement programs.
"The substantial increase in grant funding this year will help even more communities keep California’s roadways safe," said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. "These grants support education, strengthen enforcement efforts to remove impaired drivers from our roads, and expand research and forensic testing to improve traffic safety across the state."
Santa Maria Police are just one of many on the Central Coast to receive the grant funding, which Traffic Supervisor Sgt. Shane Armstrong said would be put to good use.
"We were fortunate to receive approval for the grant," said Armstrong. "We received notification last month. The the grant will help both on the education, enforcement and training side of combating impaired driving within the City of Santa Maria. It allows us to do these extra patrols without any additional funding from the city of Santa Maria, from the taxpayers. The money that we get from this grant just allows us to get out there and combat this issue."
According to the Armstrong, the SMPD made 642 DUI arrests in 2025 and over the 12 months, there were 260 crashes involving impaired drivers.
"Driving impaired driving has been an issue here within the City of Santa Maria for quite some time," said Armstrong. "Our goal is to keep the City of Santa Maria as safe as possible and knowing that impaired driving is an issue in this town. The funding is going to help with the education components and specifically targeted enforcement. This grant will allow us to do six additional DUI or impairment saturations in addition to the 27 that we're already doing, with the help of the Office of Traffic Safety grant."
Santa Maria knows all too well about the potential consequences of driving while impaired.
The grant award comes just over a month ago that five teenagers died in a high speed one-car crash at intersection of Highway 135 and Miller Street.
The deadly crash sent shockwaves throughout the city and surrounding area. It remains under infestation, but according to the police, alcohol is suspectd to have been involved.
"It is our feeling that that alcohol was involved at some at some point during that traffic collision," said Armstrong. "Unfortunately, it involved young teenage teenagers, so I think it's just an important opportunity for parents to speak to their kids about the dangers of drinking and driving and what the result can be, and in this case, unfortunately, we lost five individuals within our community because of it."
Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley Executive Director Edwin Weaver is at the forefront of combating the use of drugs and alcohol in the area believes the grant money is badly needed.
"The tragedy that happened weeks ago brought to light the fact that we do have a problem here in the Santa Maria Valley around vehicle accidents, distracted driving, drunk driving," said Weaver. "We have one of the highest rates in the State of California and so I was really glad to hear that the state is going to start funding efforts to help reduce that and that our police force is going to be involved."
While speaking at the site of last month's deadly crash, Weaver pointed out how the crash is a good opportunity itself to help educate the community, especially young adults about the inherent dangers of driving while impaired.
"When when five lives are lost so quickly in one accident, it takes the breath out of all of us," said Weaver. "We mourn and we try to understand what was going on, but at the end of the day, we want to take the mantle and say, never again. We do that by educating and talking to our young people, to enforcing the laws, and to really decide if we want to be a culture where alcohol is the driving force in our community, or do we want to take a step back and start taking a hard look at how we celebrate events. Does alcohol always have to be front and center of everything that we do as adults? I'd like us to consider maybe thinking about how we model behaviors that we want our young people to follow us and live their lives doing the the fun things in life maybe without alcohol."
SMPD was the only Santa Barbara County law enforcement agency to receive CHP funding, while several in San Luis Obispo were awarded including, the SLO County Sheriff's Office, Paso Robles Police Department, Atascadero Police Department, Morro Bay Police Department, San Luis Obispo Police Department, and Grover Beach Police Department.
Ventura County agencies that were awarded grant funding are Ventura County Sheriff's Office, Ventura County Forensic Services Bureau and Oxnard Police Department.
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