EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — A drunk-driving prevention campaign born from a South Jersey family's tragedy is preparing for a major national expansion, with $500,000 in federal funding expected to put its message on approximately 125 additional police vehicles across the country.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew announced Monday that the federal funding will support expansion of the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign's Police Patrol Car program beyond New Jersey.
The money, provided through the U.S. Department of Justice, will pay to wrap police vehicles with the campaign's familiar message:
“Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver.”
The HERO Campaign's brightly colored police vehicles serve as mobile billboards promoting sober designated drivers while remaining active law-enforcement vehicles.
“The Elliott family has done incredible work for a very long time, and this funding will help them take that work even further,” Van Drew said in announcing the funding.
“Every one of these police cars is another reminder to people not get behind the wheel after drinking,” he said. “If that reminder stops even one person from making that decision, that is a life potentially saved.”
From Egg Harbor Township to across the country
The HERO Campaign was created by Bill and Muriel Elliott and their family following the death of their son, Navy Ensign John R. Elliott of Egg Harbor Township.
Elliott, 22, had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in May 2000 and was killed two months later in a collision with a drunken driver on Route 40 in Salem County.
The family transformed John's death into what has become a decades-long campaign promoting the use of designated drivers.
“We are very grateful to Congressman Van Drew and the Department of Justice for this grant which will help us grow our life-saving campaign across the country in memory of our son,” Bill Elliott said.
“John wanted to serve his nation,” Elliott added. “Now he is getting his chance.”
The federal money represents a major expansion of a program that started locally.
HERO-wrapped patrol vehicles can already be found in communities throughout South Jersey, including Atlantic City, Egg Harbor Township, Galloway, Longport, Northfield, Pleasantville, Somers Point, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon, North Wildwood, Cape May, Lower Township and others.
The program has continued spreading beyond its South Jersey roots.
In August, East Greenwich Township became the 51st law-enforcement agency to put a HERO Campaign patrol vehicle on the road and the first participating department in Gloucester County.
Earlier this year, Hoboken became the first municipality in North Jersey to formally join the HERO Campaign, unveiling its own HERO patrol vehicle in May.
125 more police vehicles
The $500,000 federal grant is expected to support approximately 125 additional police cruisers, according to Van Drew's office.
If that projection is realized, the new federal expansion would be substantially larger than the patrol-car program that has been built over the past several years.
The concept is straightforward: participating departments wrap active police vehicles in the HERO Campaign's navy-and-yellow branding and designated-driver message.
The vehicles then carry that message through communities during normal patrols as well as at schools, community events and public-safety programs.
The HERO Campaign describes them as “rolling billboards” against drunk and impaired driving.
The campaign's own fundraising information estimates a HERO patrol-car wrap at about $3,000, although the federal grant announced Monday could include additional program and expansion expenses beyond individual vehicle wraps.
A South Jersey program with a national reach
The patrol cars are only one piece of the HERO Campaign.
The organization also works with schools and colleges, bars and restaurants, businesses, highway-safety organizations and professional sports teams to encourage people to designate a sober driver before drinking.
Over the years, the campaign has expanded through New Jersey and into other parts of the Northeast.
The new Justice Department funding, however, is specifically intended to take the police patrol-car program beyond New Jersey and expand its presence nationally.
Van Drew previously announced the $500,000 HERO Campaign allocation as part of a larger group of federally funded South Jersey projects. Monday's announcement provides new details about how the money will be used and the expected scope of the expansion.
For the Elliott family, that means a campaign that began after the death of their 22-year-old son in South Jersey could soon carry his name — and his family's designated-driver message — on police cars across the United States.
“John wanted to serve his nation,” his father said.
“Now he is getting his chance.”
