Traffic enforcement a high priority
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Greg Whinham
Guest commentary
I
have been following with interest and concern the discussion between Rep. Neil Hansen and Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner regarding traffic enforcement and the issuing of citations. I think it is important to speak to this issue and would encourage Rep. Hansen to consider some of the valuable reasons traffic enforcement should be an important core function of law enforcement in all of our communities.
In Roy, enforcement is not the only method we utilize to reduce accidents and injury. For several years we, like many communities including the state of Utah Public Safety, have provided a traffic school for those receiving citations. The purpose of these educational efforts is to enhance drivers' awareness of laws, and discuss driver distractions and current trends in the accident-causing components in our communities.
In addition, as reported in the Standard-Examiner Nov. 28, the Roy Police Department, with support from the Utah Highway Safety Council, has started the Alive at 25 educational program at Roy High School. Nearly 800 students will receive four-hour training on decision-making and an understanding of their consequences associated with choices they make when driving on the roads. We hope other communities will follow in this effort.
In 2006, 85 young adults between ages 14 and 24 were killed in auto accidents in Utah; 109 in this same age group were drivers of vehicles in crashes where at least one person was killed. It is my sincere belief that traffic enforcement and education must partner to effectively reduce the numbers of deaths on the roads each year.
As important as traffic safety, other aspects of good traffic enforcement must be considered. I believe there are three compelling reasons for establishing a professional traffic enforcement function in a community.
* The No. 1 complaint I receive is that every neighborhood and street has drivers driving too fast, and residents ask that we do something about it.
* A professional traffic enforcement presence is a deterrent, and will increase safety on our roads and in our neighborhoods.
* Traffic enforcement is a productive way to locate criminals. Many drivers on our roads are driving without insurance, and/or they are on revocation and they have warrants for their arrest for failing to appear in the courts for other criminal activities.
Any of the above reasons for traffic enforcement would have merit by themselves. In looking at the three together, it would be hard to argue against the importance of this function in our police departments. In the Roy Police Department, the function of traffic enforcement is defined as a "core function" and is reflected on the officer's yearly evaluation as a work standard that can be measured. Every person who has gainful employment must have standards and must be measured to those standards. Traffic enforcement is only one of many standards by which a community can measure the effectiveness of the police officers who serve them.
Officers in Roy do not like to do traffic enforcement because it is not fun to do. It is a chore for the officers. In doing traffic enforcement, we have decided that it must be done in a professional manner and with equity among all officers. A group of officers reviewed their evaluation measure and made the following recommendation that has been adopted for all officers assigned in a patrol function: Each officer must stop 350 observed traffic violators in a one-year period and write at least 250 citations in that year. This means that an officer working 2,080 hours of regular assigned patrol a year would need to make a traffic stop every five and a half hours they work, and write a citation every eight hours. This is an oversimplification, but explains that traffic enforcement is not the primary focus of their patrol function. Other core functions include call response, coming to work on time, wearing neat uniforms, accident investigation, establishing and maintaining the peace, writing articulate reports and doing case follow-up activities, among others.
Officers in Roy subscribe to the fact that traffic enforcement is part of their assigned responsibilities and job description, and recognize that this work-related assignment will be measured on their yearly evaluation. This effort is not new to our department, and we feel our efforts are measured in accordance with what we can adequately do considering the other calls for service we respond to. Each citizen should understand what this effort means to them.
In 2006, there were 8,639 parking and traffic citations issued. More than 8,000 educational stops were made by officers where individuals received nothing more than a warning and reminder to obey the traffic laws.
During these traffic stops, hundreds of criminals were found and arrested, drugs were seized, impaired drivers were taken off of the roads and many uninsured motorists were identified. Even if the measure of success is difficult to define in the numbers of lives saved when we look at the relationship between accidents and traffic enforcement, we can always measure in the hundreds the numbers of criminals taken off the street after a traffic stop.
And, yes, many of our most productive community members were cited for traffic violations and many had the opportunity to attend our traffic school.
Even with these efforts, the No. 1 complaint I get from residents in Roy is that there are so many speeders. For this reason alone, we will continue to do traffic enforcement in as professional a manner as we can. We will continue to measure this core work assignment as we evaluate our officers' work performance, just as we will measure the way they treat the people of the community and the performance of all of the other assignments they have. If you have an opportunity to find yourself being stopped for a traffic violation, understand that this moment in time is not fun for you or the officer stopping you.
The officer, by assignment, is required to perform this duty -- just as all of us are required to obey the traffic laws. If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact me at gwhinham@royutah.org.
Whinham is Roy's chief of police.
