In 1993 the Oklahoma Buckledown Awards Program was conceived by Sgt. Mike Garner with the Tulsa Police Department, and Dr. Richard Coberg with Educational Alternatives in Norman. The first awards program was held to recognize a group of Tulsa Police Officers for their outstanding performance in DUI and Seat Belt enforcement. The first awards were presented in the spring of 1994 at Saint Francis hospital in Tulsa. Memorial Awards were created at that time to honor Sgt. Don Byerley and Officer Fabrienne VanArsdell, both Tulsa Police Officers who were killed in the line of duty by impaired drivers.

In 1995 the Buckledown Program was expanded to include Officers, Deputies, and Troopers from the Tulsa metropolitan area, and by 1996 the program had grown to include law enforcement officers from throughout Northeast Oklahoma. In 1997 the Buckledown Program was again expanded to include all law enforcement agencies in the Eastern half of the state, and in 1999 it grew to cover every law enforcement officer in the state of Oklahoma.

In 2001 a third Memorial Award was created to honor Trooper Matthew Scott Evans, an outspoken traffic safety advocate, who was killed by a drugged driver on August 31, 2000. Oklahoma City Police Officer Jeff Rominger was killed in the same incident.

In six short years the Buckledown Program grew from a small local traffic safety recognition program to the largest law enforcement recognition program in the state of Oklahoma. Each year local, state, and federal officials gather to recognize officers, deputies, and troopers from throughout the state for their exceptional traffic safety enforcement and prevention efforts.