Responsibilities

The Traffic designation of the Blaine Police Department's Patrol Division is responsible for enforcing all traffic laws and education of traffic laws. This part of the division relies on the public help to report problems.

Use of the city's speed trailer is one important aspect of the division, as is oversight of seat belt programs and drinking and driving programs like Towards Zero Death and Safe and Sober.

Reporting Traffic Concerns

When reporting traffic concerns to the police department, please provide specific information such as addresses, times, vehicle makes and models and other specific descriptions.

Being Safe & Sober

The components of Safe and Sober, a national and sate program administered by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety are:

• Buckle up
• Drive at safe speeds and non-aggressively
• Drive attentively
• Drive sober

Law enforcement in Minnesota - local police, county sheriffs and State Patrol - participate to educate drivers and enforce traffic laws.

The primary objectives of Safe and Sober are to increase seat belt use and to reduce alcohol-related crashes by raising awareness of the following:

• Injuries from traffic crashes are the leading cause of death of people from age 1 to 34.
• Seat belt use reduces the chance of dying in a crash by 50%.
• Two-thirds of Minnesotans killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts.
• About 40% of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related.
• Speeding is the leading cause in fatal crashes.
• Inattentive driving is the leading cause of injury crashes, and second highest cause of fatal crashes.
• In Minnesota, there is a murder every 67.9 hours. In comparison, there is a traffic fatality every 15 hours.