The Traffic Division responsibilities include:  traffic enforcement, fatal/major injury collision investigations, road side safety checks/intoxicated driver saturation patrols, parking code enforcement, and public awareness of traffic laws.  The Peoria Police Department Traffic Division currently consists of the following personnel: 1 Lieutenant - 1 Sergeants - 9 Officers - 4 Parking Enforcement Personnel.

ENFORCEMENT
The Traffic Division's primary responsibility is to reduce traffic collisions within the 48 square miles within the City of Peoria, Illinois. We accomplish this through enforcement of traffic laws and high visibility. It has been shown and proven in studies throughout the United States that the amount of traffic enforcement directly affects the amount and seriousness of traffic collisions. As the amount of citations and visibility increases, the amount of collisions decreases and hopefully reducing personal injuries and property damage. We frequently have officers assigned specifically to enforcement activities where all of the Officers work a specific area for any and all violations. Certain areas are chosen for maximum enforcement due to the number of collisions in that area, and/or complaints received about the area. Aggressive traffic enforcement has been found to be a contributing factor in reducing crime.

FATAL / MAJOR INJURY COLLISION INVESTIGATION
The Traffic Division currently has trained 'Accident Re-construction Investigators' who are on call in case of a serious collision. The average investigator has a minimum of 200 hours of training specifically in the traffic collision field. The importance of a thorough collision investigation has many aspects. The investigator determines the cause of the collision and if there are charges to be filed in the collision. Also, the report will likely be used later to determine liability, and is frequently used in civil cases as well as criminal. Our Traffic Division is on the leading edge of technology in collision investigation. We were one of the firsts in our area to switch to 'laser' speed measuring devices, laser assisted mapping and measuring, digital photography, and advanced training. We were also one of the first to use a system to assist in crime scene/collision diagramming with animation.

ROAD SIDE SAFETY CHECKS / INTOXICATED DRIVER SATURATION PATROL
Over the past few years the Traffic Division has been working under a state grants. The grants were given to help reduce the amount intoxicated-driver involved collisions. In the grant, the Department received new 'Preliminary Breath Test' (PBT) and 'Remote Breath Tesing' (RBT) breath devices, breathalyzer instrument, and money to cover overtime to perform intoxicated-driver sweeps within the city.

PUBLIC AWARENESS
Our traffic division officers have also given numerous presentations in traffic laws and enforcement. We are at times asked to give presentations at schools to all different age groups. During the presentations we are able to relay the importance of safe driving, as well as, bicycle and pedestrian laws to children. We have also given presentations to adults in Citizen Police Academy's.

STATISTICS
During 2007 our city had six fatal collisions with six fatalities. The Police Department issued 30,041 citations and investigated over 4,084 collisions. In 2007, This Police Department made 436 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.