Road Policing Effective Use of Data 1
Introduction Road policing must be intelligence-led using all the available information, statistics, attitude surveys and other data available so that operations can be planned to achieve maximum success. This means that road policing actions are focused and based on good evidence and can be strategic and efficient. The collected information is used to identify the real causes of collisions in the target area: when and where crashes and offences mostly take place, who are the key culprits and then to develop and implement a strategy to ensure effectiveness in enforcement of road law. Meaningful and practical enforcement solutions to the road safety problem need to be applied only after thorough interrogation of the offences, road crashes, deaths and serious injuries that take place. The purpose of this resource is to work through key terms and concepts in relation to data led enforcement. Road User Knowledge and Attitude and Impact on Safety Often there is a lack of road safety awareness within the community and this failure to really understand the risk factors of dangerous and careless or unsafe behaviors endangers everyone. Road police need to be conscious of public knowledge and attitudes towards road safety: Many road users do not know the road law or how to apply it Many drivers/riders/pedestrians do not understand the laws of physics and the length of time it takes to stop a vehicle in an emergency Many drivers/riders/pedestrians do not realise the damage which occurs to the human body in a crash even at low speed Drivers/riders/pedestrians will work around police enforcement both positively and negatively, for example: - efficient enforcement will result in a high level of compliance - lax, limited or no enforcement will result in a higher level of risk taking, noncompliance and increased road trauma Drivers/riders/pedestrians will justify their own actions and behaviors believing they are fully in control of the situation Most drivers/riders/pedestrians believe they will not be involved in a crash i.e. It won t happen to me. This information is collected using a number of tools, such as household surveys, attitudinal surveys and situational assessments. This type of information is rarely collected by road police, but it is likely to be available through other related sources. Discuss: Where are road police likely to access knowledge and attitudes surveys and how can this information be useful for traffic police? 2
The Data/Intelligence Process The collection, analysis, interpretation and application of reliable data is essential for effective road safety management and strategic enforcement of the relevant road law. Data collection systems are generally not well developed in low and middle income countries globally and road police in these countries will require a lot of support to establish useful data to effectively and strategically carry out enforcement. The use of technology in this process is not always available or timely. The use of reliable and detailed data as part of a road safety strategy is indicated below 1 : Reliable data can also be useful to build political will by: Documenting the scale of the problem Demonstrating effectiveness of interventions from both a financial and social perspectives Providing information on reductions in socio-economic costs. Discuss: What are some challenges around the collection and use of reliable data? 1 World Health Organization. Data Management: A Road Safety Manual for Decision Makers and Practitioners, 2012. 3
Data Requirements A comprehensive road safety data system needs to include: Final outcomes: deaths and serious injuries to road users and crash characteristics Exposure measures: demographic data, number of licensed drivers, traffic volume data, infrastructure factors Intermediate outcomes: mean traffic speeds, seatbelt and helmet wearing rates, drink-driving, vehicle and infrastructure ratings Socio-economic costs Outputs: including enforcement efforts. The following image represents the data levels and use 2 : 2 World Health Organization. Data Management: A Road Safety Manual for Decision Makers and Practitioners, 2012. 4
Key Sources of Data There are a number of key sources of data for intelligence on road trauma more generally. They can be summarised as (but not limited to): Road Police Number of road traffic incidents, fatalities and injuries Road users involved Age and sex of casualties Vehicles involved Police assessment of causes of crashes Use of safety equipment (e.g. helmets) Location and sites of crashes Prosecutions Health Settings Fatal and non-fatal injuries Age and sex of casualties Costs of treatment Alcohol or drug use Ministry of Transport Number of drivers and vehicles Kilometres travelled Insurance Companies Fatal and non-fatal injuries Damage to vehicles Costs of claims Other private and public institutions, including transport companies Number of fatal and non-fatal injuries occurring among employees Damage and losses Insurance claims Legal issues Operational data. 5
Minimum Data Requirement for Road Policing The minimum data requirements for road policing have been identified as 3 : Crash related Road related Vehicles related Person related Crash identifier Type of roadway Vehicle number Person ID (unique reference Road functional Vehicle type Occupant s vehicle number assigned Class Vehicle make number to crash, usually by Speed limit Vehicle model Pedestrian s linked police) Road surface Vehicle model year vehicle number Crash data Junction Engine size Date of birth Crash time Traffic control at Vehicle special Sex Crash municipality/ junction function Type of road user place Road curve Vehicle manoeuvre Seating position Crash type Road segment (what the vehicle Injuries severity Impact type grade was doing at the Safety equipment Weather conditions time of the crash) Pedestrian Light conditions manoeuvre Crash severity Alcohol use suspected Alcohol test Drug use Driving licence issue date Age Discuss: What impact will a missing source of data have on planning and budgeting road safety interventions? Which is essential data? 3 World Health Organization. Data Management: A Road Safety Manual for Decision Makers and Practitioners, 2012. 6
Benchmarking Road Policing Internationally, a road fatality is one in which a person dies within 30 days of a traffic related road crash. To be included in the statistics, the road crash must occur as a result of a vehicle being driven on a public road or highway. Off-road fatalities do not count; neither do those occurring on racing circuits or areas temporarily designated for the purpose of car racing. Generally, road fatalities are benchmarked internationally against the following criteria: Deaths per 100,000 population Deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles Deaths per 100 million kilometers travelled. There are also several other benchmarks but they are not used as commonly as those above. So what is benchmarking? Benchmarking is a standard of performance which can be applied to compare road trauma in different countries or even different regions/districts within a country. The police force needs to have assessed their own road safety performance before they are able to make comparisons. Undertaking a benchmarking exercise will provide an indication of where the force ranks internationally, regionally or nationally. It can provide an incentive to improve strategies/performance but will not help achieve results unless actions are strengthened as a result of benchmarking. 7
Benchmarking Exercise Using the criteria above, at least six countries should be considered for comparison. Traditional lower injury/death rate countries can be used as a base e.g. Sweden, United Kingdom and Australia. (The facilitator should provide information on known strategies and enforcement methods in these countries). The participating country could be asked to pre-select one or two neighbouring countries known to have a better road safety record than their own and two neighbouring countries with poorer records. This will ensure informed comments in identifying the differences. The first aspect of the benchmarking exercise should consider the fatalities and injuries statistics. The discussion can then address other aspects known or available about the participating and the neighbouring countries. Discuss: 1. What other aspects should be considered for benchmarking especially with neighbouring countries? Issues for discussion may include: Infrastructure support legislation, driver licensing, registration system, efficiency in processing offenders Data collection mechanisms Drivers /riders attitude towards enforcement Road safety strategic plan Actual enforcement strategies Enforcement Effectiveness Equipment available Access to technology Training of traffic police officers 2. Can any of these really be measured for comparison? If so which ones and how? 3. How can this knowledge and information be used to raise the status of our law enforcement capability? In order to improve road safety status locally and internationally, operational strategies and initiatives need to be identified and implemented in a structured way. Then continuous improvement in performance can begin to occur. 8
Intelligence Led Road Policing There are three levels of police intelligence: 1. Tactical Intelligence Assists in providing a direct response to a current or short term road policing issue Enhances capability for various road policing issues, including (but not limited to): - Analysis of collisions within specific locations - Reporting on emerging road safety issues - Assessing current causes of road trauma - Analysis of emerging road user issues and offending - Identification of black spots and reporting on issues influencing road safety - Individual target profiles 2. Operational Intelligence Informs road policing operations and resource allocation Informs and directs enforcement activity within a road policing operation Reports trends in road policing data (drink & drug driving data, infringement notices, collisions) during past time periods Provides mapping and intelligence about ideal locations for enforcement placement Relevant time and day charting informs decision makers for enforcement within specific locations 3. Strategic Intelligence Supports policy and strategy development by providing an insight into future and changing road policing issues. Involves predictive analysis and is often linked to long term organisational goals Supports high-level decision making by informing the development of strategies and policy amendments Provides extensive analysis about the history of a road policing issue, outlines the current issues and forecasts future outcomes Often developed to assist the Road Police create strategies to achieve organisational road policing objectives Needs to address the displacement issue (this is where road policing actions cause drivers to take alternative routes to avoid detection). Most intelligence to assist road policing comes from the collision statistics collected by road police officers who attend crash scenes. It is critical that this information is completely accurate and reliable and submitted within 24 hours from the time of the collision. Fatal crashes should be recorded immediately 9
Accurate recording of minimum information includes: Exact location Exact time Daylight/night-time, dusk, dawn Weather conditions Vehicle types, categories Road user type Fatalities, injuries, non-injuries Seat-belt wearing/non-wearing (all occupants) Helmet wearing/non-wearing, correct wearing (riders & all passengers) Road conditions Speed zone or restrictions Similarly, causation factors must be identified as accurately as possible including: Description of crash & diagram Alcohol/drugs a contributing factor? Speed a contributing factor? Offences committed? Driver/rider at fault? Prosecution intended? Remedial action recommended to prevent another crash in the same location because of the same reason (need increased enforcement, education or engineering solutions) Accurate and comprehensive collision data should be centrally collected, collated and analysed so that timely information may be provided to supervisors and road police patrol officers to ensure their policing and enforcement activities are directed towards reducing crashes and crash severity in the future. Patrol officers and supervisors can do their own simple analysis of crash causation by asking a few questions: Discuss: What are the real causes of crashes? Keep asking questions: - Why? - What? - How? (Don t accept the first reason identified) 10
For example: Analysis of speeding Excessive Speed? Why was the driver speeding? Why did the driver think speeding was acceptable? What enforcement activity occurs in vicinity? Crash Cause How frequently do excessive speed crashes occur in vicinity? Is speeding prevalent there? Is there general education on the risks of speeding? Is there any on road education of the risks? What police actions will prevent future crashes? Identify & Implement Discuss: How can the current data-capture and information gathering systems be improved? How can phones, cameras, GPS and other technology improve data collection in the field? What are the barriers and enablers to using technology for data collection and analysis? How can social media support enforcement efforts? 11
Why Measure Performance? What will work in one country may not work in another country and some good ideas put into operation in one city may not work in another. Policing methods on an expressway are different to policing methods in the urban or rural environment. Successful operations are always judged using good performance measures and there needs to be a range of different performance measures to check on the success of an operation. In policing, the success of the operation is not measured by the number of traffic violations issued, but more importantly by how many lives were saved or are saved in the future because of police interventions and actions In every country in the world, performance measures for police are considered to be difficult to collect because it means recording and collating various actions and activities. Sometimes police officers believe it is a waste of time and do not record the correct information or make up some statistics just to please others. These actions are counter-productive to road safety. 12
Internationally, there are a number of base measurements such as (but not limited to): Number of citations or infringements issued Whether the offenders are in a motor car, transport or motorcycle Breath alcohol levels (breakdown into categories) for drink driving enforcement operations Hours spent on enforcement at checkpoints or general patrols for specific offences Number of police officers used in the enforcement effort Traffic density at checkpoint locations counting the number of driver/riders who observe the traffic police activities Number of operations per month Number of times the incidents/checkpoints/operations were reported in the media Percentage of persons offending for each targeted offence Percentage of persons not infringing the reverse of the above Percentage change in fatality rate Percentage change in injury rate Offender profiling: For specific offences such as drink driving, the information recorded can give a very good insight on the profile of drink driving offenders such as: Age, sex, occupation Alcohol consumed type, quantity Place of drinking e.g. hotel, bar, residential, dining Time since the last drink consumed and the time of the breath test Intended destination before interception e.g. home, work, entertainment, leisure Explanation for drinking and driving Repeat offenders All the above information assists in building a database for continuous improvement in enforcement strategies and tactics particularly: The amount of enforcement required The times of the day and days of the week where maximum benefits can be obtained from enforcement activities The location of checkpoints and the duration of the checkpoints Offender profiling identifies social marketing strategies for further education Measuring the relationship of enforcement actions to crash reduction Measuring the decrease in alcohol consumption and driving compared with the crash rates 13
Police may also hand out questionnaires to non-offending drivers asking their perception of drinking and driving. Have the drivers fill the questionnaire in and return it by mail. Each officer has a responsibility to measure their role in the program and ensure that all the information is collected and submitted to supervisors and managers for analysis. The manager or supervisor needs to monitor the team s performance and adjust any shortfalls with: Mentoring Instructions Counselling Training and Praising Performance Measures (to gain support for additional resources, finances, programs) Performance indicators are critical to demonstrate current success and assist future actions or activities including: funding requests from government demonstrating a return on investment for the current program (resources, finances) justifying police activities to the public i.e. proving that the intervention was beneficial, necessary or justified highlighting the lack of public awareness and the need for further education or advertising assisting in the collection of statistical data and the subsequent evaluation of the program Discuss: How can civil society and the media support road police to be more effective? 14
Advocacy to Support Road Policing * Effective use of data in road safety and road policing can also be the basis of advocacy work to achieve road safety outcomes. * Refer to GRSP s Advocacy for Strengthening Road Safety Policy manual for a better understanding of the definition, process and potential of advocacy to improve road safety. Advocacy can be used to influence the prioritisation of the road safety policy framework, allocation of resources and professionalization of enforcement activities. Advocacy can also create a demand for safety and bring about a cultural change. Those who can be positively influenced for effective advocacy are: Government Private Sector Civil Society Community and Community Groups Insurance Industry Media The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) defines advocacy as: A set of targeted actions directed at decision makers and key influencers in support of a specific policy issue. In other words, advocacy is a tool directed at those who have the power to influence policy change and allocation of resources for the safety and benefit of all road users. Advocacy elements are: Specific Policy Issue: Advocacy includes a call to action on a policy issue (including adoption and implementation). Targeted Actions: Advocacy is a strategic and planned process of targeted actions. Decision Makers and Influencers: Advocacy is always directed at people who can either make a decision or influence a decision. 15
There are a number of additional characteristics that guide advocacy including: Advocacy is positive action offering credible change alternatives; Advocacy is based on evidence and starts from ground level experience; Advocacy is a dynamic process and requires the ability to act swiftly to changing circumstances; Advocacy is a long term process rather than a one off event; and Advocacy often depends on alliances and partnership with civil society organisations, people with influence, the public and private sector. Policy is directed by Road Police Command or Government to ensure that uniformity is applied to road policing and there are priorities applied to certain categories of offences, drivers/riders or locations. Discuss the legislation/policies and regulations that apply to road policing How effective is the law in reducing death and serious injury of road users? Are the penalties severe enough/too severe? How is recidivism addressed? Are there maximum/minimum penalties? Is there integrity in the collection of fines? Are infringements issued or does each incident result in a court appearance? What is the level of general knowledge amongst drivers/riders on the law as it applies to road safety? What real time information about drivers/riders can be obtained through the police computer or records at the time the drivers/riders are intercepted? e.g. registration particulars, driver licence particulars, prior convictions or offences. What are the key road safety policies in operation in your country? Where does the revenue from fines go to? Discuss: Who could be targeted in an advocacy initiative to positively influence the policy framework that impacts on road user safety? 16
Example Setting Respecting the law you are required to enforce Road Police are responsible for traffic law enforcement on roadways in both urban and rural regions. To be effective, it is critical that the enforcement has integrity by being rigorous, fair and uniform across the jurisdiction. Not only must this occur, but it must be perceived that it operates in this manner by the driving public. Road police are usually the front-line interface between the police and the community. As such they provide a strong image on the public perception of police. Furthermore, because police and road safety personnel are leaders in our community, it is imperative that ALL road safety officers set the standard and become a positive example to others in society. This means always wearing a seat/safety belt in a motor vehicle (driver/passenger), always wearing a helmet (if on a motorcycle), and driving responsibly within the speed limits and in accord with all other legal requirements (unless on emergency police duties with emergency lights and siren operating even then responsible and safe driving is essential). If you are a driver, NEVER commence driving until ALL passengers have their seat belts fastened. Supervisors are responsible to monitor police driver and passenger behaviours, and for taking appropriate action if they fail to meet the required standards. Discuss: 1. What are the real road safety issues in your country? 2. What are the key points as to why crashes happen? 3. In your opinion what road policing methods work best? 4. What are the five key traffic offences (safety related) which should be concentrate on? Why? 5. What actions can be collectively undertaken to improve driver behaviour? 17
Situational Analysis Situational Analysis is the action of analysing the current situation in the jurisdiction where the training is taking place and includes jurisdictional data, crash statistics and trend analyses. Discuss: 1. How many crashes, injuries, fatalities occur per day, per month, per year? 2. What is the road fatality rate in your country? 2009 2010 2011 2012 3. What is the injury rate in your country? 2009 2010 2011 2012 4. Is there a rise, fall or plateau in fatalities/injuries? What is the trend? Why? 5. Who are the predominant victims in road crashes? 6. What are the causes of crashes in your country? What are the causes behind these crashes? 7. How do statistics in your country compare with other like countries/ internationally? 8. What enforcement actions can be taken to reduce the crash-risk? 9. What practical actions can be taken to deter bad driving without resorting to the imposition of fines or issuing violations? 10. What additional equipment could assist in your endeavors to reduce crash risk? 11. What additional knowledge or training could be provided to assist your team in combating the road safety problem in your community? 18
Conclusion The success of any road safety program or initiative will be heavily dependent on traffic law enforcement programs and their strategies and effectiveness across the geographic area being targeted. Appropriate levels of resources deployed in a coordinated manner, working with proven and effective operational traffic law enforcement methodologies and strategies will provide the cornerstone for the successful implementation of a Road Safety Program. The perception of road users must be managed to create the expectation that if they deviate from the required standard of behaviour, they will be apprehended, penalised and the penalty will be imposed and enforced or the consequences will worsen. This will only be achieved effectively by the development and implementation of an integrated traffic law enforcement program specifically customised to take the existing social, economic, cultural, demographic and historical conditions in the targeted area into account. Such a program needs to be data led. The traffic law enforcement program must focus on the predominant highest risk behaviours. International research has identified that speeding, impaired (alcohol/drug) driving, non-use of seat belts and helmet wearing as the largest percentum contributors to road deaths and major injuries. The traffic law enforcement program must apply scientifically based selective traffic enforcement principles across the target area and concurrently coordinated with community awareness and education activities. Effective enforcement can achieve short, medium and long term outcomes. The longer term effects of the formal education programs will produce safer and more aware new drivers and road users and when this group merges with the deterred older drivers, this will create a new road user culture. The levels and locations of enforcement outputs must be carefully pre-determined in accordance with the times, days and general locations of relevant high risk road crashes. It is expected that the enforcement outputs will be modified over time as a result of monitoring and evaluation of resultant changes in the specific road user behaviour. The application of a systematic traffic law enforcement developmental process will provide the senior managers with a basis for strategic allocation of government funding to support effective and efficient traffic law enforcement programs. The results will be reflected in a significant change in the incidence and severity of road trauma and the resultant cost to the government and the community. 19
The key to achieving significant and sustainable outcomes for any integrated road safety will include the direct, ongoing and committed involvement of road policing authorities. The purpose of this manual is to provide a tool for those authorities to build the basic capacity in their personnel to ensure success in achieving the required outcomes. It has been accepted in police forces and law enforcement agencies internationally, that intelligence driven criminal investigations is the way ahead. The same rationale must be applied to traffic law enforcement and road safety strategy implementation and this manual is based on that principle. Key Review Points: Effective Collection and Use of Data by Road Police: Is essential for road safety based enforcement planning Provides the basis for targeted enforcement which is intelligence led enforcement Achieves maximum benefit with minimum police resources Provides other road safety disciplines with a further data dimension Needs to be combined with other data outputs to provide the full road safety picture Evidence is the key to intelligence lead road policing The real cause of crashes must be identified Road policing must address the real problems and the underlying causes. Think about the critical issues and questions: What works in road policing? What impacts on road policing? What are the programs/actions that produce proven results? Is what is being done now effective? Can it be done better? And if so, how? What will be the indicators of success? - Evaluate the actions against pre-determined objectives - Continuously review for improvement, impact and efficiency 20