Performance Standards Assessment Tool for Disbursement of Law Enforcement Grants

A basic question concerning the amount of enforcement needed to generate a deterrent effect on behavior is how much is enough. What makes this question particularly difficult to answer is that the deterrent effect of enforcement activity will likely vary from location to location due to a number of site characteristics such as geography, demographic composition and community attitudes. The fact that the answer may vary from site to site suggests that the best source for the answer would be the community itself where a determination could be made based on an assessment of relevant community, including law enforcement agency, characteristics and practices. If tools could be developed that can be readily applied within a community to determine the requisite amount of enforcement needed, then State Highway Safety Offices could distribute it to law enforcement agencies and their partners while also providing guidance on how to tailor their deterrence programs to their communities. This project will develop tools that law enforcement agencies and their partners can use to calculate the level of enforcement needed to have a deterrent effect on specified proscribed behaviors within their communities. The tools would not be confined to enforcement but would also include non-enforcement activity that influences the impact of enforcement. In particular, the tools will address media and other communications activity since enforcement will not have a general deterrent effect unless the public is aware of the enforcement.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This study is being conducted under the National Cooperative Research and Evaluation Program (NCREP), which is administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and jointly managed by NHTSA and the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $244874
• Contract Numbers:

  DTNH2215V00014

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, D.C.  United States  20590

  Governors Highway Safety Association

  444 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite 722
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Office of Behavioral Safety Research

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, District of Columbia  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, D.C.  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Smither, DeReece

• Performing Organizations:

  Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

  Cambridge, MA  United States  02142
• Principal Investigators:

  Smither, DeReece

• Start Date: 20170301
• Expected Completion Date: 20231231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: Behavioral Safety Research
• Subprogram: Law Enforcement
• Subprogram: NCREP

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Communities; Evaluation and assessment; Grant aid; Law enforcement; Public relations
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663466
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Contract Numbers: DTNH2215V00014
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 21 2018 1:08PM