Partying University students might want to think twice about driving in Charlottesville while intoxicated.
The Charlottesville Police department soon could step up their patrols for drunk drivers in the city through a $13,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
City Council will vote tonight on appropriating the funds to the police department given to the city as part of a traffic safety grant from the DMV.
The grant is likely to be approved with little or no discussion, Council member Rob Schilling said.
"Because there's no budgetary impact and it requires no matching funds, I can't see why anyone would question it," Schilling said.
The $13,000 in funds will enable officers working overtime to staff sobriety checkpoints and mobile patrols for drunk drivers. Another $1,497 grant will allow the department to purchase three digital cameras for use in accident investigations and educational programs on child restraint devices.
Schilling said initiatives to curb drunken driving are important, especially given Charlottesville's large population of young people.
"Something like [sobriety checkpoints] can be particularly effective if someone has had too much to drink and is driving," Schilling said. "It's in the best interest of the community that they be caught before they hurt themselves or someone else."
Many sobriety checkpoints are centered around areas near the University, Council member Blake Caravati said.
"I would think because of the composition of our community [incidents of drunk driving are] probably higher than other communities that don't have a University," Caravati said. "We've got football games and such."
But the checkpoints are not specifically directed toward students, he said.
"Truly this is not just an issue of the University," he added.
Police applied for the transportation safety grant so they could use the city's funding for more general public safety measures, Schilling said.
According to Web site statistics from the City Budget Office, Charlottesville Police are allotted $8.7 million of the city's $21 million public safety budget for the year.
"I think [the police] need to be applauded for their efforts in obtaining funding for the grant because they did work hard for it," Schilling said.
Caravati said that the city receives similar grants on a yearly basis from a variety of sources in state and local government.
The city government also offers funds and resources to assist in sobriety checkpoints, he said.
"We'd love to catch you if you're driving drunk," Caravati said.
Police officials could not be reached for comment.
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