By Eddie Cota

The Whittier City Council approved a $130,000 state grant on July 14 to pay for extra DUI patrols and a drug-testing device for the Whittier Police Department (WPD). 

Why it matters

Whittier had 95 crashes in 2025 involving alcohol or drugs, and 28 of those crashes caused injuries, according to WPD's grant application. The department wants this money to help cut injury crashes tied to impaired driving by 10% within a year. That's a specific number residents can check the department's work against once the year is up.

The money traces back to Proposition 64, the 2016 ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana in California. State law directs a share of California's cannabis tax revenue to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) for training and local law-enforcement grants like this one. None of it comes from Whittier's general fund or local taxes — it's money the state is handing to the city.

Key facts

The grant comes from CHP and covers one year, from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. It pays for two things:

• $85,000 in overtime for 12 DUI saturation patrols — stepped-up patrols where extra officers focus specifically on catching impaired drivers — three per quarter throughout the year. Each patrol puts six officers and one sergeant on the road for eight hours.
• $45,000 for a TruNarc analyzer, a device that tells officers on the spot whether a substance is an illegal drug, instead of waiting for lab results. WPD says this will help it file DUI and drug possession charges with the District Attorney faster.

WPD originally asked for money to buy two of these devices, but CHP only funded one. CHP decides final award amounts after reviewing every agency's application, and the grant agreement doesn't explain the reduction.

Context

WPD plans to send officers to training in field sobriety testing, drug recognition, and advanced roadside enforcement, and will partner with Mothers Against Drunk Driving on public education. The department says 69% of its patrol officers are already trained in DUI investigations, and it wants to keep that number steady or grow it.

How Whittier compares

Whittier's grant is one of 160 law enforcement awards CHP made statewide this year, totaling more than $41 million to fight impaired driving. Several nearby cities received the same grant in this cycle, including Baldwin Park, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, Monterey Park, and South Gate — placing Whittier alongside a broad group of Southern California agencies funded through the same program this year.

What's next

The grant year starts July 1, 2026. WPD has to send CHP progress reports every few months and a final report on how it spent the money within 60 days after the grant ends. Those reports, plus next year's crash data, will show whether the department actually hit its goal of cutting injury crashes by 10%.