Charlotte drivers could soon see more blue lights on the city’s busiest streets, as police wait to hear whether three state traffic-safety grants will come through. The money would pay for new speed-detection equipment, extra traffic-enforcement overtime, and part of the salaries for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s DWI Task Force. If approved, the grants could shift when and where officers show up along Charlotte’s highest-injury corridors.
What the council approved
City records show the City Council adopted resolutions on Jan. 13 authorizing CMPD to apply for three grants through the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program, according to the City Council meeting agenda. One of those items lists a $217,739 grant request for the department’s DWI Task Force, describing the unit as six officers and one sergeant. It is a partial funding request that would cover about 25% of the unit’s projected FY2026 costs. The specific legislation for that request is outlined in the DWI Task Force grant resolution.
Equipment, overtime and outreach
Local coverage of the meeting reports that the council also signed off on a roughly $30,000 grant for handheld LIDAR speed units and another $50,000 grant for overtime traffic operations, with Detective Danny Leung calling LIDAR "a phenomenal tool." According to WBTV, CMPD currently has about 50 LIDAR units in service, typically buys two to three new devices each year, and estimates that each unit runs roughly $2,500 to $5,000.
Where enforcement will focus
The department says patrols funded by the grants would be steered toward streets on the city’s High Injury Network as part of Charlotte’s Vision Zero effort to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. The city’s Vision Zero materials outline the High Injury Network and list enforcement as one of the short-term tools used to reduce crashes along corridors with repeated serious collisions. The program emphasizes data-driven targeting and equity in enforcement priorities, City of Charlotte Vision Zero explains.
DWI task force and community outreach
The DWI Task Force concentrates its enforcement in Uptown and South End while also handling impaired-driving education in schools and at community events. Sergeant Katie Anderson told WBTV the unit aims "to at least reach 100 to almost 200 students a year," pairing prevention work with saturation patrols in areas that see higher crash rates.
CMPD is now waiting on the state to decide on the three traffic-safety grants. If the money is awarded, the projects will fold into the department’s existing fiscal-year enforcement plans on file with the city. For drivers, that would translate into more targeted speed and impaired-driving enforcement along high-injury corridors in the months ahead.
