NCJ Number
158019
Date Published
1994
Length
102 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the activities of traffic police officers in England and Wales concluded that traffic police have a wide and varied role that contributes not only to the objectives of traffic policing but also to much wider policing goals.
Abstract
The analysis focused on the objectives, performance indicators, and costs of traffic policing in six police agencies selected as broadly representative of the 43 police agencies in England and Wales. The six agencies provided a total sample of 1,242 traffic officers, representing approximately 14 percent of all traffic officers in England and Wales. Results revealed that four of the agencies had centralized and two agencies had decentralized structures for the traffic function; no specific structure appeared to be correct for all agencies. The agencies agreed about the reactive objectives for traffic policing; greater uniformity existed regarding performance indicators. The agencies deployed the highest level of resources during the business day, a lower level during the evenings, and even less at night. Traffic police spent about 25 percent of their time on traffic incidents, almost 5 percent on traffic-related checks, about 25 percent on preventive patrol related to both traffic and crime, 7 percent on individual crime incidents, 4 percent on other incidents, and just over 33 percent on support activities. The combined total costs for the 6 forces was more than 50 million pounds. Figures, tables, and appended methodological information and additional results