The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center’s (TMCEC) grant, Municipal Traffic Safety Initiatives (MTSI) was designed to bring traffic safety to the forefront of awareness and implementation by municipal courts and to help them embrace the concept of transforming traffic safety into a local priority.

2011 Highlights & Accomplishments

All of the goals and objectives for FY 2011 have been met or exceeded.

Outreach:

• An awareness campaign was accomplished through collaboration with Sherry Mathews Advocacy Marketing, one of our traffic safety program partners. A mailing that included “Regret”, the Jacqui Saburido video series that chronicled Jacqui’s life over the past decade after a drunk driver changed her and her family forever, posters in English and Spanish, and a letter from TMCEC was provided to all of the municipal judges, clerks, and municipal courts in Texas;
• There were 48 MTSI traffic safety exhibits which exceeded our goal by 100%.

Traffic safety programs and educational conferences:

• 1,627 judges received traffic safety education through 10 Regional Judges Seminars and the Judges Traffic Court program, a national traffic safety program for judges provided by the American Bar Association Judicial Division National Conference of Special Court Judges in partnership with TMCEC;
• 1,594 clerks received traffic safety education through 10 Regional Clerks Seminars and 439 clerks were provided traffic safety education at several local clerks programs;
• 188 municipal Bailiffs, warrant officers and marshals received traffic safety education at a statewide conference;
• 178 prosecutors received traffic safety education at a statewide conference;
• The Municipal Traffic Safety Initiatives Conference had 181 participants that included municipal judges, clerks, city attorneys, prosecutors, and eight TxDOT staff members comprised of program managers and traffic safety specialists.

The Recorder is the periodic journal published by the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center as a critical news and information source for municipal courts in Texas. There were 53 pages of traffic safety information education published which exceeded our goal by 165%.

Nine municipal courts were identified and received Traffic Safety Awards due to their dedication and hard work in the area of traffic safety outreach and education in their communities.

2005-2010 Highlights & Accomplishments

• TMCEC annually trains about 1,200 municipal judges at ten (10) regional judicial seminars. On average, there are 54 traffic safety courses offered at these regional judicial seminars. TMCEC incorporated traffic safety materials into the curriculum for the municipal judges’ regional conferences, as well as traffic safety courses for the municipal clerks, bailiff, warrant officer, and prosecutors programs.
• The MTSI traffic safety web-site provides additional information to the TMCEC constituency on traffic safety issues. This web-site provides for “one-stop shopping” for traffic safety materials related to the work of the municipal courts. This web-site is updated regularly.
• The TMCEC municipal traffic safety list serv that was founded in July 2006 continues to be utilized with numerous requests each month to join. The membership continues to grow as a result of these requests. Important traffic safety information, articles and resource are shared via this list serv on a monthly basis.
• The creation of a 2007-2008 Municipal Traffic Safety Calendar, that highlighted traffic enforcement dates, assists the municipal courts in knowing when they may receive an increased number of citations.
• In 2007, 82% of the MTSI performance measures for 2007 were exceeded.
• Municipal Traffic Safety Awards were sponsored in 2008 with nine Municipal Courts being recognized for their outstanding efforts in Traffic Safety. Award recipients were recognized at the TMCEC’s Municipal Traffic Safety Initiatives Conference. Due to the positive impact and feedback, both the award and conference is continued annually.

TMCEC wishes to express its appreciation to Mr. Terry Pence, Traffic Safety Director, Traffic Operations Division, and Mr. Frank Saenz, Alcohol and Other Drug Programs Manager, Texas Department of Transportation, for their valuable assistance in procuring funding and helping to implement the MTSI programs.

For more information contact tmcec at 800.252.3718

A project of the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center

in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation