NCJ Number
87636
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1983) Pages: 42-46
Date Published
1983
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article identifies the key areas of disagreement among law enforcement officials regarding the effects of police visibility on driver behavior, and describes study findings addressing the issue.
Abstract
Law enforcement agencies must concentrate on trying to change driver behavior to reduce traffic collisions. However, law enforcement officials do not agree on the most efficient and effective means of increasing highway safety by altering driver behavior to reduce traffic law violations and subsequent collisions. Two key issues among this disagreement involve traffic arrests and types of patrol. Key components of police traffic accident prevention programs can be put logically in order to serve as a functional model. The first step is to identify hazardous locations (high frequency accident locations). The second step is to deploy officers at these locations during the highest frequency times to enforce accident-causing violations. The next step (the most difficult) is to create an image of police omnipresence at the prescribed locations. Several studies have been conducted to address this issue. One study deployed officers at specific intersection locations at the same time each day for a specific period of time. Violations were reduced 53 percent during the enforcement period, with significant residual effects during the postenforcement period compared to the preenforcement period. A Canadian study using a comparable design confirmed similar results. Another study, conducted by the Institute of Police Traffic Management of the University of North Florida, showed that drivers as a group become more attentive and drive slower in the presence of an enforcement officer. However, vertical residual effects cannot be expected throughout all hours of a day, which places severe limitations on the human resources of a law enforcement agency. Findings also suggest that a roving type of patrol will be ineffective at specific locations in altering driver behavior. In general, study findings supported the concept of selective traffic enforcement. The article includes 10 footnotes.