With the St. Patrick’s Day holiday coming up soon, the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) is once again sponsoring a special Traffic Enforcement Program (sTEP) Wave.

Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard says the purpose of the sTEP wave is to encourage motorists to make good choices during the busy travel or party holidays during the year. The program will run from March 14-17, and during that time law enforcement throughout the state will be out in larger numbers to enforce traffic and safety violations. Leonard says his deputies will be looking for one violation in particular. “Our efforts are going to be on the smaller communities, doing some surveys to see how the seatbelts are being utilized. And then we’ll probably start an effort of writing some warnings and stuff to remind people that it’s a necessity and it’s the law, and we’ll go from there. But again, there’s going to be added law enforcement out there on the street, so keep that in mind!”

Leonard adds, since it’s St. Patrick’s Day they’ll also be keeping a sharp eye out for impaired drivers, and the probable cause threshold will be lower for pulling over a suspected drunk driver. The GTSB provides funding for overtime hours to enable law enforcement agencies to have a greater number of officers active during sTEP Wave periods.