Empirical research suggests that traffic enforcement is the most common type of proactive activity police officers engage in on a daily basis. Further, agencies often use traffic enforcement to achieve both traffic safety and crime control. Given these goals, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether (and to what extent) officers are accurately targeting their proactive traffic enforcement with crime and vehicle crashes in two agencies.

    Design/methodology/approach

    The study examines traffic enforcement patterns in two agencies to see whether proactive traffic enforcement aligns spatially with crime and vehicle crashes. This study employs negative binomial regression models with clustered standard errors to investigate this alignment at the micro-spatial level. Key variables of interest are measured with police calls for service data, traffic citation data and vehicle crash data from two law enforcement jurisdictions.

    Findings

    High levels of spatial association are observed between traffic accidents and crime in both agencies, lending empirical support to the underlying theories of traffic enforcement programs that also try to reduce crime (i.e. “DDACTS”). In both agencies, traffic accidents also appear to be the most prominent predictor of police proactive traffic enforcement activities, even across different times of day. However, when vehicle crashes are accounted for, the association between crime and traffic stops is weaker, even during times of day when agencies believe they are using proactive traffic enforcement as a crime deterrent.

    Originality/value

    No prior study to authors knowledge has examined the empirical association between police proactive traffic activities and crime and traffic accidents in practice. The current study seeks to fill that void by investigating the realities of traffic stops as practiced daily by police officers, and their alignment with crime and vehicle crashes. Such empirical inquiry is especially important given the prevalent use of traffic enforcement as a common proactive policing tool by police agencies to control both traffic and crime problems.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    The practice of proactive traffic stops


    Weitere Titelangaben:

    The practice of proactive traffic stops


    Beteiligte:
    Wu, Xiaoyun (Autor:in) / Lum, Cynthia (Autor:in)

    Erschienen in:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    11.12.2019


    Format / Umfang :

    18 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Transit stops on main traffic routes

    Chadwick, C. R. | TIBKAT | 1972


    System for assisting with vehicle traffic stops

    GETSAY JAMES G / KNOX CHRISTINA | Europäisches Patentamt | 2018

    Freier Zugriff

    SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VIRTUAL TRAFFIC STOPS

    CLINES NICOLE FAREN | Europäisches Patentamt | 2021

    Freier Zugriff

    SYSTEM FOR ASSISTING WITH VEHICLE TRAFFIC STOPS

    GETSAY JAMES G / KNOX CHRISTINA | Europäisches Patentamt | 2018

    Freier Zugriff

    Systems and methods for virtual traffic stops

    CLINES NICOLE FAREN | Europäisches Patentamt | 2024

    Freier Zugriff