Traffic Tech #226: Resource Guide Describes Best Practices For Aggressive Driving Enforcement |
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In January 1999, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a national telephone survey to document the public's experiences and beliefs about unsafe and aggressive driving (see Traffic Techs 186 and 187). Sixty one percent said that speeding by other people, and slightly more, sixty six percent, said that unsafe driving actions by other people are a major threat to themselves and their families. Three out of four felt that doing something about unsafe driving was very important.
Law enforcement agencies across the country are implementing innovative programs to combat aggressive and unsafe driving in their communities.
Aggressive Driving Enforcement: Strategies for Implementing Best Practices was developed by law enforcement officers for law enforcement officers. It describes in detail a dozen different aggressive driving law enforcement programs and explains the steps these agencies took to make their program a success.
Planning
The first step is planning and involving the right people in the program.
Best practices
Twelve law enforcement agencies approached the problem of aggressive driving enforcement in many different ways. These exemplary programs have changed behaviors and attitudes and have achieved measurable results. The Guide describes what these agencies did, how they accomplished their objectives, the technology they used, and more importantly, what they learned during the process that will help other agencies implement an aggressive driving program in their community.
HOW TO ORDER
For a copy of Aggressive Driving Enforcement: Strategies for Implementing Best Practices (35 pages), write to Media and Marketing, NHTSA, NTS-21, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590, or send a fax to (202) 493-2062, or download from NHTSA's website at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people
Excerpts from Best Practices
Where's Jockers?
St. Petersburg, Florida was experiencing high incidences of drivers running red lights, crashes with fatalities, and many incidences of aggressive driving. Marked patrol vehicles were not effective in stopping these aggressive driving behaviors. Officer Jockers began sitting in all types of non-traditional city vehicles to observe traffic and call ahead to marked patrol cars to take enforcement action. He has been known to sit on lawn mowers, bus stop benches, and road construction equipment, to name a few. Soon the media heard of the special enforcement, asked for more details, and began reporting live during morning news casts with interviews of motorists.
Where's Jockers? took the aggressive driving issue to far more people than those who were actually stopped because of the extensive media coverage.
Legal Considerations
Before the program began, St. Petersburg Police Department met with the city prosecutors and judges to make them aware of the enforcement strategy and the use of the non-traditional vehicles. It was considered helpful when the judicial system understood these issues before defendants came to court. They also became aware of how large the St. Petersburg aggressive driving problem was when large number of cases began to come to the court.
St. Petersburg Police Department is expanding their aggressive driving program to 3-Es, Enforcement, Education and Engineering. They will use a broad based effort to educate the public, look at roadway design and signing, and combine these with their enforcement activities.
Massachusetts State Police 3D Program
The Massachusetts State Police use a team of troopers assigned to an aggressive driving team for one year. They use marked and unmarked patrol vehicles, and non-traditional vehicles typically seized from drug or criminal interdiction cases. The vehicles are equipped with in-car video cameras, radar units, and emergency lights. A uniformed officer in the unmarked vehicle works with two or more marked patrol vehicles.
Officers work in areas identified as aggressive driving problem areas, such as those with high crash incidences, congestion, or fatalities. When they observe a violation, the officer in the unmarked vehicle begins videotaping the driving behavior and relays the location to officers in regular patrol vehicles who will make the stop. If the driving behavior is especially severe, the uniformed officer in the unmarked vehicle will initiate the traffic stop to eliminate both the behavior and reduce the potential for a pursuit.
If the computer check on the driver history shows more than three aggressive driving behaviors within the last three years, the officers request an Immediate Threat Suspension or Revocation hearing from the Registry of
Motor Vehicles (RMV). If the RMV suspends or revokes the license, the driver is required to attend either remedial driving training or anger management training.
Special Features
This approach uses laws that are already in place to deal with the aggressive driver. If there is a pattern of aggressive driving, then compulsory training to change the driver's behavior is recommended.
The use of in-car video cameras help the officer establish evidence for court and has decreased court time for troopers. The Massachusetts State Police have held more than 300 Immediate Threat hearings. Every case referred to the Registry of Motor Vehicles has resulted in the driver's license being suspended or revoked.
U.S. Department
of Transportation
National Highway
Traffic Safety
Administration
400 Seventh Street, S.W. NTS-31
Washington, DC 20590
Traffic Tech is a publication to disseminate
information about traffic safety programs,
including evaluations, innovative programs,
and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish.
If you would like to receive a copy contact:
Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D., Editor, Evaluation Staff
Traffic Safety Programs
(202) 366-2759, fax (202) 366-7096
mailto:lcosgrove@nhtsa.dot.gov