Students commuting to SIUC should beware of Wolfpacks, Illinois State Police say.

Wolfpacks are groups of police officers who prowl problem areas looking for traffic violators, Trooper Roger Webb said. Wolfpacks are currently patrolling areas of Williamson County, which includes Route 13 between Carbondale and Marion.

Wolfpack patrols are where we have seven or eight extra officers working on their off days to intensify traffic enforcement, Webb said. It will eventually affect all of District 13, which will include Carbondale.

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Wolfpack patrols occur in waves lasting approximately one month, Webb said. There are three waves a year, and one of them is going on right now.

The current wave began at the beginning of the month and will last until the first or second week of March.

We have officers patrolling problem areas, and we are able to stop more offenders than if we had only one officer in an area, Webb said. For every person we stop, it will hopefully get them and people passing by to reduce their speed and wear their seatbelts.

Webb said his experience working in a Wolfpack has led him to believe the program is successful.

I worked in a Wolfpack this week for four hours, Webb said. There were seven of us working, and we averaged about six tickets per officer, not including regular officers who weren’t working the Wolfpack.

I can tell you than quite a few people will remember those four hours for a long time. A lot of people noticed us and were asking why there were so many state police out.

Wolfpack patrols are part of the Illinois State Police Traffic Enforcement Program. The program, which is federally funded, was implemented late last year.

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Webb said the program’s purpose includes increasing the use of seat belts and child-safety seats, reducing drunken driving and reducing speeding and roadway fatality rates.

He said local and county police departments are involved with the program, and many have created their own programs.

Williamson County Police Captain Les Higgins said his department has a similar program called IMaGE (Integrated Minigrant Enforcement). He said it began Tuesday and will end Feb. 24.

The purpose of IMaGE is to increase patrols in various areas of the county, Higgins said. Every three months, we bring in officers to work extra days to target problem areas. We hope to reduce speeding and DUIs and increase the use of child safety restraints and seat belts.

Carbondale Police Sgt. Chuck Shiplett said Carbondale has a program in which officers work extra hours to reduce DUIs.

We perceive a problem with people driving impaired in Carbondale, he said. Eight times a month, we have officers work on their days off to reduce the problem.

Jackson County Sheriff William Kilquist said his department also implemented a new program in December.

We have a program that puts more officers out on the street to try to reduce traffic accidents, he said. We hired two new officers in December.

Kilquist said the need for more officers became apparent following a three-year study of traffic crashes in Jackson County.

We found that there was a total of 1,968 motor vehicle collisions in three years, he said. There were 17 deaths and 499 personal injuries. These numbers are pretty high, so we decided to do something to reduce crashes by 8 percent.

The sheriff’s department received a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation to increase the number of officers and fund special events.

We give presentations to high school students about driving habits and drinking and driving, Kilquist said.

Webb said all of the programs in the area will help make the highways safer to travel. He said the programs are also instrumental in encouraging the use of child safety seats.

State police records indicate traffic collisions are the leading cause of death and injury for young children. In 1994, 682 children in Illinois under five years of age died as a result of traffic accidents.

If 100 percent of the children in that age group had been transported in child safety seats, it is believed an additional 282 children could have been saved.