CHP Grants to Fight Impaired Driving Include Data and Tech

California Highway Patrol (CHP) has awarded local agencies with $35 million in grant money aimed at combating impaired driving — including 11 agencies that will use the funding for activities involving data and technology.

The grant money, which comes from Proposition 64, is generated through cannabis taxes and disbursed regularly. There are 148 recipients in total, of which 126 are law enforcement agencies that will use it for activities such as training and public outreach. Another 11 will use it for education in their communities.

Seven grants went to toxicology crime laboratories, which will use it to tackle evidence backlogs and purchase or upgrade testing equipment. They are:

• The Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff, Forensic Services Division
• The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
• The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Crime Lab
• The Ventura County Forensic Services Bureau
• The Kern Regional Crime Laboratory
• The Orange County Crime Laboratory
• The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office

The final four grants will go toward medical examiners and coroner’s offices to improve data collection for impaired driving cases. They are:

• The Los Angeles Medical Examiner
• The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Coroner’s Division
• The Placer County Sheriff’s Office
• The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office

Applications for next year’s grants will likely open in early 2026, according to a CHP press release.