By Marilyn Miller
The Law Enforcement STEP program has been paying off for the Village of Dixie Inn, with the total number of tickets issued on Interstate 20 increasing daily since the program took effect earlier this year. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the overall goals of the STEP (Safety Traffic Enforcement) Program are as follows:
Goal 1 —To increase passenger vehicle motorist awareness of the need to leave
sufficient space when passing a truck .
Goal 2 —To increase passenger vehicle motorist perception that they will
receive a ticket if they cut off a truck or exhibit other unsafe driving behaviors
around commercial vehicles .
Goal 3—To increase the number of citations written by law enforcement
officers for unsafe driving behavior around commercial vehicles .
Goal 4—To decrease the number of unsafe driving behaviors observed by law
enforcement officers .
Goal 5—To reduce the number of crashes between commercial and passenger
vehicles . (This goal would clearly require a comparison over time).
“It’s working,” Dixie Inn Chief of Police Jeff McNeill reported during the Oct. 14 Regular Meeting of the Village Board of Aldermen. “It’s working because we only had one traffic accident in September,” he said.
According to the Daily Ticket Count report tallied by Chief McNeill’s office, a total of 403 tickets were issued on Oct. 14, 2025, for a fine total of $100,750. Dixie Inn’s part of that total will be $48,360, with $18,135 earmarked for officers.
The overall STEP goal is to induce motorists to drive safely. STEP encourages Dixie Inn’s officers to issue more tickets, which not only deters speeding drivers who are pulled over, it encourages other drivers on the highway to slow down.
Chief McNeill reported that there were 280 traffic stops made in September 2025, a total of 256 citations written, no arrests made, four Lemis reports made, 31 non-Lemis calls, 90 building checks, 10 back-ups, 30 public assists, 32 calls for service, and one accident reported.
Originally a Canadian program, STEP is now a program with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which was combined with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to educate drivers on safely sharing the road with motor carriers (large trucks).