NCJ Number
203770
Date Published
2003
Length
99 pages
Annotation
This document catalogs effective strategies and promising practices for the improvement of traffic safety.
Abstract
While traffic safety is integral to the safety of all Americans, proactive traffic safety initiatives too often sit on the back burner while other seemingly more important police initiatives receive departmental support. In order to demonstrate the importance of proactive traffic safety law enforcement initiatives, this document serves as a guidebook for the emerging trends and proven strategies of traffic safety. The initiatives offered within should be viewed as a menu of effective programs, but not all programs will work in all communities. Police departments must consider the approaches that have worked in other communities and then design a traffic safety program that will work within their neighborhoods. Considerations for the future are offered in a section that considers how demographic data affect highway infrastructure and safety. Police strategies and tactics for the future are also considered, such as location-oriented strategies and offender-targeted strategies. All of the strategies offered through the document are divided among the three areas that form the core components of traffic safety: management practices and strategies, human resources practices and strategies, and technological innovations and strategies. In all, 59 strategies are offered for proactive traffic safety initiatives, such as community involvement, alternative work schedules, and automated highways and vehicles. Periodic updates are promised so that the proven strategies will remain current. A listing of resource organizations is included.