FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO) – The Fort Wayne Police Department has been aggressively enforcing stop-arm laws.

The Fort Wayne Police Department has received a grant of just over $49,000 from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to target stop-arm violations on school busses.  The operation is called, Stop Arm Violation Enforcement or SAVE.

SAVE allows the department to pay officers overtime to go out and sit and watch problem areas where schools have identified people who often pass school buses.  The major target areas are on Illinois Road, St. Joe Road near Canterbury Green Apartments and West Jefferson Boulevard.  The program runs every day, depending on the availability of police officers.  The department only has a handful of officers that are taking part in SAVE.

Since the operation started, which was a day or two after Fort Wayne Community Schools started, officers have issued a little over 100 violations as of Sunday, September 8.  The operation is set to end on Friday, September 13.

Fort Wayne Police Department Public Information Officer, Sgt. Sofia Rosales-Scatena says “Know the rules. Know the law. Know where you have to stop and where you don’t and pay attention.  I think most of the time, people are just distracted.  They’re distracted with their phones, with eating, with talking to other people in their car and they just don’t pay attention.”

Sgt. Rosales-Scatena says that the department has also had over 200 stops for speeding in school zones.  She says” That’s a huge concern because most of the kids in Fort Wayne Community are walkers.”