April 2008 marked a decade of progress for finding new ways to save lives on Georgia roadways. It was ten years ago this month that the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) established a promising new concept for coordinating traffic safety campaigns in Coastal Georgia. GOHS had just created plans for a new statewide Georgia Traffic Enforcement Network concept, now known as “GATEN.” That statewide network started with the launching of the Metro Atlanta Traffic Enforcement Network in November of 2007, immediately followed by the Coastal Area Traffic Enforcement Network that went into action saving lives here on Southeast Georgia highways just six months later.

Although most Georgians are unfamiliar with the titles of Georgia’s enforcement networks, every Georgia driver knows the names of the lifesaving highway safety initiatives these officers work together to enforce: Campaign names like “Click It Or Ticket,” “Operation Zero Tolerance,” and “The 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T.” are all coordinated through Georgia’s statewide Traffic Enforcement Networks. CATEN enforcement activities cover thirteen cooperating jurisdictions that include joint operations with GSP, police and sheriff’s agencies in Appling, Bacon, Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, Pierce, Tattnall, Ware and Wayne counties.

All around the state this month, hundreds of Georgia traffic safety officers will attend their regular enforcement strategy sessions to plan how to keep your family safe on the highways over the upcoming holiday travel period. Police, sheriff’s deputies, and state troopers in your community will meet to share a meal, and in between servings of sweet tea and barbecue, they’ll take a moment to give thanks for a decade of life-saving speed, safety belt, and DUI-campaign enforcement largely made possible through the development of GATEN.

The GATEN networks were created by law enforcement, for law enforcement. Their groundbreaking mission was conceived in 1997 with an objective to reduce the carnage on Georgia’s roads and interstates. Since then, GOHS has created a system of sixteen regional traffic enforcement networks that encompass all 159 Georgia counties and coordinate the highway safety activities of more than 500 law enforcement agencies to save lives throughout the state.

“At a time when police agencies in every community are being asked to do more-and-more with less-and-less, the sixteen GATEN coalitions act as a force multiplier, helping even the smallest departments make a big difference in local highway safety, “ said Director Bob Dallas of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. “These networks augment local police manpower for sobriety roadchecks and concentrated patrols to crack down on the kind of speed, aggressive driving, safety-belt, and alcohol-related crashes that result in severe injuries and fatalities where you live and drive.”

“Now, Georgia’s vision to build traffic enforcement networks among police agencies throughout the state has become a successful national model, borrowed many times over by neighboring Southeastern states, with similar life-saving results,” said GOHS Law Enforcement Services Director Ricky Rich. “For members of the Coastal Area Traffic Enforcement Network working for ten years under the leadership and coordination of Captain Luther Hires, April 2008 truly represents a milestone in highway safety for all of Georgia.”

Joining the salute to Captain Hires and CATEN was Attorney General Thurbert Baker, NHTSA's Belinda Jackson and a host of law enforcement personnel from throughout Georgia and the entire Southeast.

“My goal is to keep another parent from standing in front of a casket.”   Luther Hires

"Thanks to GOHS and NHTSA for these traffic enforcement networks making a difference in the lives of Georgians. I feel safer on our highways.

I don't know that there can be a calling that is any greater than to serve in law enforcement in this country,  to protect the public safety and to protect the public's welfare.  We have brave men and women who are willing to answer the call and I thank God they are courageous enough to do it.

And that's why I like the interagency cooperation of the GOHS Traffic Enforcement Networks like CATEN.. People who are not afraid to take on the tough cases.. People who are not afraid to put it on the line.

We have to make sure we're getting you the resources to do your job in a respectable, professional manner.

What you do makes a difference. We couldn't be where we are today without our first line of defense." Attorney General Thurbert Baker