NCJ Number
182951
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 67 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 23-28
Editor(s)
Charles E. Higginbotham
Date Published
2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Encouraged by the effectiveness of CompStat in reducing crime, the New York Police Department (NYPD) examined whether CompStat components could be applied to other areas of law enforcement, and the result was TrafficStat.
Abstract
CompStat involves several components that extend beyond the computer statistics that give the process its name. Key components of CompStat are accurate and timely intelligence, rapid deployment, effective tactics, and relentless follow-up and assessment. Inaugurated in April 1998, TrafficStat uses the same key components of CompStat to reduce traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities; to identify dangerous highway engineering conditions and ensure their correction; and to increase safety education efforts for children, pedestrians, and the motoring public. TrafficStat holds meetings at police headquarters to discuss such issues as crash analysis and the correction of conditions at crash-prone locations. Various recommendations are considered in these meetings, such as changing the timing of a traffic light, adding a turn arrow, installing signs or barriers, or painting new pavement markings. A 28 percent decline in traffic fatalities has been attributed to TrafficStat during its first year of operation. 3 endnotes