Tyler Police Seeking Grant for New Crowd Safety Barriers

(KNUE-FM) The Tyler Police Department is now seeking a grant that would provide money to buy crowd-protection barriers, and this could be extremely helpful with keeping people safe here in East Texas.

Tyler Police Seeking Grant for Crowd Protection Barriers

According to KLTV, the city council voted on Wednesday to support a resolution to apply for a $52,000 grant from the Texas Governor’s Homeland Security Division to buy portable crowd-protection barriers.

READ MORE: Tyler Police: How to Safely Move Over for Emergency Vehicles

How the Barriers Would Protect Crowds

Essentially, the money would purchase 42 portable barriers that would stop vehicles from entering areas where large crowds are gathered. We’re talking about protecting people while doing 5K runs or even keeping people safe at large events like the Tyler Rose Parade and our Red Dirt BBQ and Music Festival.

If a vehicle were to hit one of these new barriers it would stop the vehicle on impact and lift it off the ground.

Tyler is a very active community, and there are events going on many weekends throughout the year, so this would be a huge help. Currently, the Tyler Police Department relies on barriers or barricades with a police vehicle on the other side.

These new barriers would be able to link together or you could deploy each of the 42 barriers individually.

We’ve all seen people in other towns that have either intentionally or accidentally driven vehicles into areas intended for crowds only, these barriers could prevent such tragic events from happening here in East Texas.

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Grant Funding Has Not Been Approved Yet

While the city plans to submit the grant application, no funding has been awarded yet.