Santa Maria police returning to increased traffic enforcement during COVID-19

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Traffic patterns keep changing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Through the beginning of this pandemic there was clearly a lot less traffic on the roadway," said Sgt. Michael McGehee with the Santa Maria Police Department.

That meant fewer officers were patrolling the city.

"In general we didn’t want to have as much contact with the public. We wanted to minimize spread COVID-19," said McGehee.

But more people are now returning to the roads.

“Now it’s getting kind of busy. People are running red lights it’s kind of crazy a little bit," said driver Christian Jones.

So more officers are back on their motorcycles and patrolling

The department is paying for the operation with a grant from the Office of Transportation Safety.

This grant operation allows officers extra hours to go out and look for DUI's and other dangerous drivers.

Officers say the pandemic isn’t stopping people from violating all kinds of traffic laws.

"People are running red lights people are running stop signs. And it’s our job to go out there and try and keep the community safe," said McGehee.

So don’t be surprised if you see more officers on the roads.