Award are given to cities that excel within the area of public safety.
In an effort to encourage cities to address safety needs and issues, many private organizations and government agencies administer formal safety awards programs. Bestowed upon cities that have made drastic improvements regarding public safety or have created innovative public safety initiatives, these programs provide honored municipalities with a variety of benefits, such as public goodwill and networking opportunities with key government officials.
AAA Community Traffic Safety Awards Program
The AAA Community Traffic Safety Awards Program is open to cities of all sizes. The goal of this initiative is to "encourage communities to address local traffic safety issues in a coordinated and cost-effective way." Each year, AAA accepts applications from municipalities. Towns are asked to describe in detail the efforts and successes of their transportation safety initiatives. Emphasis is placed upon what AAA calls the "3E's": enforcement, education and engineering.
There are four awards given each year, each based on the size and level of success of a city's efforts. The platinum award is given to cities that have achieved "astounding success" within the area of traffic safety. The gold award recognizes projects and initiatives that "demonstrate superior effort" within traffic safety. Silver award recipients have implemented traffic safety initiatives that "demonstrate a strong, sustained effort." Finally, the bronze honors "substantial" efforts in traffic safety.
National Roadway Safety Awards
The National Roadway Safety Awards honors cities, organizations and agencies that have made "verifiable and significant strides toward improving the safety of our nation's highways through infrastructure improvements, operational improvements or program planning, development and evaluation." Distributed every two years, the National Roadway Safety Awards are cosponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Roadway Safety Foundation.
Award recipients attend the ceremony in Washington, D.C. This affords them the opportunity to network with Federal-level transportation officials as well as personally accept their awards from senior members of the United States Department of Transportation. In addition, honored cities are featured in the Safety Best Practices Guide, Public Roads Magazine and the Roadway Safety Reporter.
Public Safety Foundation of America
The Public Safety Foundation of America is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 for the purpose of engendering "cooperation among public and private groups to provide financial and technical support to the public safety communications community." The organization awards grants to municipal, county and state agencies for the purpose of improving public safety communications technology. As of 2010, the organization has awarded more than $13 million in grant money to over 200 agencies in 40 states. The grants are administered by the Public Safety Foundation of America committee, a consortium of representatives from eight different government and safety associations, including the National League of Cities.
Tags: Safety Awards, Roadway Safety, public safety, Safety Foundation, cities that, Foundation America
