The City of Douglas Police Department and the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department, jointly, will be entering the sixth year of receiving the Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (H.E.A.T) Grant through the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. This year’s approved application amount is $117,105.70.
The H.E.A.T. program is a multi-jurisdictional program with one officer, Tommy Groll, with the Douglas Police Department, and one officer, Jacob Adams, with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department. Both H.E.A.T. Unit officers have the authority to patrol both the city and county.
The purpose of the H.E.A.T. program is to decrease accidents on Georgia’s highways by focusing on DUI’s, aggressive drivers, speeders, seatbelts, child restraints and other causes of fatalities on highways.
Each entity will receive equal shares of the grant, which includes salaries, benefits, travel, training, telecommunication equipment and operating expenses for the two officers. The H.E.A.T. Grant will fund 60 percent of the cost for the expenses with the local governments sharing the 40 percent required match.