NCJ Number
74236
Date Published
1979
Length
123 pages
Annotation
The impact of an Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP) orientation on police officers' personal characteristics, knowledge of driving under the influence (DUI), their attitudes towards drinking, and their involvement in DUI patrol and arrest is assessed.
Abstract
A survey of 212 police officers in Fairfax County, Va. administered before they attended ASAP orientation and again 6 months later attempted to determine the relationships among their knowledge, attitudes and performance. Three dependent variables were examined; (1) the level of DUI patrol activity as measured by self-reported contacts and arrests; (2) the types of equipment officers used; and (3) the reasons an officer gave for stopping a suspect. More than 20 independant variables were used, including age, formal education, specialized training, number of years as a police officer, and attitudes toward ASAP. Only the DUI patrol activity was strongly related to other variables, such as knowledge of alcohol and driving, attitudes toward drinking, age, years as a police officer, time required to process a DUI suspect, tactics used to avoid making a DUI arrest, and the number of serious or fatal DUI accidents handled. Posttesting of 143 respondents revealed that the officers' overall understanding of the program and their confidence in their decisions concerning whether to stop, test, and/or arrest a DUI suspect increased. However, while the survey provided extensive descriptive material on officers' attitudes and perceptions, less was discovered about relationships among variables, suggesting the need for further study. Survey instruments, 68 tables, and analysis scales with 20 additional tables are appended.