The UW-Madison Police Department (UWPD) announced a partnership with Lights On! on April 12 to provide drivers with free repair vouchers in an effort to decrease citations for driving violations.
Lights On! was initiated by the organization MicroGrants, a Minnesota-based non-profit. The program intends to replace conventional traffic tickets with vouchers, allowing motorists to fix mechanical violations such as broken tail lights free of charge, according to UPWD. The program hopes to better prioritize community resources by increasing the number of safer cars on the road.
Rather than delivering a ticket to motorists, UWPD officers will provide drivers with a voucher to repair any violation at local auto repair shops participating in the program.
UWPD Executive Director of Communications Marc Lovicott told The Daily Cardinal in an email the goal of the program is to “assist community members in getting their vehicle up to legal standards in terms of headlights, turn signals, brake lights.”
Sherman Patterson, the vice president of Lights On!, said the program also seeks to deescalate interactions between motorists and police while providing a free service.
“We don’t want people to be anxious or things getting escalated,” Patterson told the Daily Cardinal.“It’s that dialogue of us, of law enforcement and the community not talking at each other, but with each other.”
UWPD is the first police department in Wisconsin to partner with Lights On!, which has already partnered with more than 160 law enforcement departments and agencies across the country. Over 10,000 repair vouchers have been redeemed in various communities.
Lovicott said he hopes the new program will help local drivers who lack the necessary financial resources to make such repairs.
“We look at this program as another way for us to merge positive connections and further enhance our relationship with the community,” he said.
Currently, two auto repair shops in Dane County have signed on to the program.
