Arlington’s has renewed a grant used to make the city’s streets safer, committing to match up to $55,766 of the state funds.
The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant, abbreviated as the STEP Grant, will provide the city with $315,423 to aid police in enforcing traffic, seat belt and DWI laws. The grant requires the city to match 15% of the state’s money.
It’s money Arlington police Lt. Brian Jones said has contributed to Arlington’s roads growing safer.
Arlington’s roads have seen fewer fatal crashes for each of the last two years. Arlington saw 30 fatal crashes on its roads in 2025, down from 37 the year prior.
Jones told KERA News in November that speeding and reckless driving are some of the main causes for fatal crashes on the city’s roads. He credited the decrease to a mix of factors, with education, police visibility on roads and use of new technology among them.
Being visible on roads is one of the biggest deterrents for speeding and reckless driving, he said. When drivers know Arlington police are monitoring roads and will pull people over, drivers will be less likely to speed for fear of getting a ticket.
It’s also one of the primary ways the grant helps with making roads safer.
The funds from the Texas Department of Transportation allow the department to pay officers to work traffic enforcement outside their regular duties.
The officers typically work a four-hour shift during which they set up in hot spots for deadly or injury crashes. Their only job during those shifts is to enforce traffic laws in parts of the city that see the most dangerous driving, Jones said.
Unlike when they work their regular shifts, he said those officers aren’t paid from the same fund as when they’re performing their normal duties. The money for those shifts comes only from the grant money and matching funds.
“The officers who do the STEP program help us out tremendously as far as our traffic stop numbers, but also the presence,” Jones said. “The more you see police officers in a particular area, the more the next time you come through you're going to say, ‘Well, I've seen the police here at 20 in Cooper. Let me slow down.’ ”
The funding is intended to assist officers in four categories: comprehensive, commercial vehicle, seatbelt and DWI enforcement.
Jones said the comprehensive grant, which has been used in the city for 30 years, focuses on highway enforcement. The department deploys officers to portions of Interstate 30 and Interstate 20 and State Highways 360 and 287 based on data collected about crashes and fatalities along those highways.
Lt. Brian Jones said police made thousands of stops along highways running through Arlington in 2025:
Funding for commercial vehicle enforcement has the same focus on patrolling high-risk areas of highways, just with 18-wheeler trailers and other commercial vehicles.
The funds dedicated to impaired driving enforcement are new this year, Jones said. It’ll be the first year the department has utilized the grant.
DWI enforcement funding is used for two periods of the year with higher risk of someone driving drunk: spring break and the time around Christmas and New Year. While speeding and reckless driving are dangerous and account for many crashes, Jones said drunk or high driving creates an unnecessary, fatal risk and has to be stopped.
The final area, seatbelt enforcement, looks not to specifically address dangerous habits of drivers who cause crashes but to reduce the fatality of potential crashes by pushing drivers and passengers alike to utilize the safety feature.
Looking nationwide, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 48% to 50% of people who died in crashes weren’t wearing a seatbelt, depending on the location of the crash.
On average, one passenger vehicle occupant who isn’t wearing a seatbelt dies every 50 minutes on American roads.
In Arlington, Jones said around 40% of people who die in crashes weren’t wearing a seat belt.
“That's something that your average driver can do to prevent fatalities from happening,” Jones said. “But as far as overall traffic safety in our city, we take it very seriously.”
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