PEORIA COUNTY, Ill. – Peoria County Sheriff’s deputies are being more proactive in getting dangerous driving off of the county’s roads.
Sheriff Chris Watkins says there have been around 1,000 traffic stops through the first six weeks of the year, up from about 260 at the same time last year.
He says deputies are looking to pull drivers over for offenses, such as speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, and even for not wearing a seatbelt.
“Over half of our fatal accidents are people not wearing seatbelts,” Watkins said. “We’ve increased our DUI arrests in the past few months too.”
Watkins says deputies plan to spend most of their focus on some of the county’s main roads with high volumes of traffic, such as Routes 24, 150, 29, and 116. He says deputies will have discretion to decide on giving a warning or a ticket, in an effort to discourage bad driving behaviors.
Watkins says the reason they’re able to do more enforcement is due to an increase in staffing post-COVID.
“Since I took over as sheriff, we were 10 deputies down, and now we’re only down a few, and I’ve added more positions. So we’re sitting pretty well right now,” Watkins said.
Watkins says it has been a focus to get traffic enforcement to pre-COVID levels.
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