2007 Traffic Safety Awards

The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police recently announced the winners of the 2007 “National Law Enforcement Challenge” and “Illinois Traffic Safety Challenge.”  The Barrington Hills Police Department competed against similarly sized agencies in the 17-25 (national) and 11-25 (state) sworn officers categories and was subsequently named a second place winner in both programs.
 
The National Law Enforcement Challenge and Illinois Traffic Safety Challenge are safety awards programs which recognize law enforcement agencies throughout the nation and Illinois, respectively, for their accomplishments in promoting traffic safety in their communities.  The Illinois program, sponsored in part by the Illinois Department of Transportation – Division of Traffic Safety, is coordinated by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and is open to all Illinois law enforcement agencies.  The national program is coordinated by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and financed by a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and open to all US agencies.

Each of these competitions require agencies to report their policies and procedures covering highway safety, their officer training, public information & education initiatives, as well as enforcement and effectiveness measures.   

A separate team of independent judges for each program reviews each agency’s application.  The applications are judged in categories, based on the number of sworn officers in the department, as well as the type of agency (municipal police, sheriffs department, college police, etc).

In response to the two awards, Chief Murphy stated “I am very pleased with our results in these two competitions, as they validate the Department’s commitment to traffic enforcement and crash reduction.”  While the Department has fared well in the state competition over the years, the national win marks only the second time in history that the Department has received such recognition. 

The National Law Enforcement Challenge awards will be presented at the International Chiefs conference in San Diego in November and the Illinois Traffic Safety Challenge Awards will be presented at Police/Security Expo in Rosemont in August.