Police Chief Magazine|Columns|Traffic Safety Initiatives
Are Red Light Cameras an Effective Crash-Reduction Solution?

Picture a young family leaving a large suburban shopping mall in a late model SUV after an afternoon of shopping for summer clothes for an upcoming vacation and enjoying pizza and ice cream. As their SUV enters the roadway from the mall on a green traffic signal and begins to make a left turn, it is broadsided by a pickup truck that fails to stop for a red traffic signal. The family members’ lives are shattered forever. Even though all were using appropriate occupant restraints at the time of the crash, the 29-year-old father is pronounced dead on the scene; the 6-year-old son sustains serious internal injuries; and his 4-year-old sister and his mother suffer no physical injuries. The 26-year-old driver of the truck is uninjured.

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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Starting and Growing An Agency’s DRE Program

With over 8,000 credentialed drug recognition experts (DREs) in the world, many agencies have a well-established DRE program with several DREs in their employ. But there are also many more agencies t...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: The Alabama Speedball

As it has across the United States, the landscape of impaired driving enforcement in Alabama has shifted dramatically over the past decade. While alcohol and prescription drugs continue to pose subst...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Your Report, Their Decision

In impaired driving (also known as driving under the influence or DUI) cases, the courtroom outcome often hinges on a document prepared long before the judge ever considers the matter—the law enforc...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Beyond the Manuals

A common question heard in substance-impaired driving classes is, “Why do we do it this way?” Too often, the answer is simply, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it” or “That’s what...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: The Evolving Challenge of Poly-Drug Impaired Driving

The world of impaired driving isn’t what it used to be. Alcohol is still the old villain, but it’s no longer acting alone. A more complicated, more dangerous player has entered the scene—poly-dr...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: How to Communicate More Effectively During Traffic Stops

A few years ago, the Colorado State Highway Safety Office identified a recent trend of increased refusal rates of impaired drivers of the required chemical test. While some U.S. states are implied con...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: From Traffic Stops to Community Impact

According to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, self-reported data revealed that 37.3 million individuals (ages 12 years or older) were current illicit drug users in the United States. M...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Legal but Lethal

Across the United States, police officers are encountering a troubling pattern: drivers who show unmistakable signs of impairment, such as slurred speech, slowed reaction time, or poor coordination, y...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Reimagining Minor Crash Response

While there are law enforcement agencies that are fully staffed, many do not have the resources necessary for timely response to every call for service. When considering how leadership could improve o...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Every Agency Needs More DREs

In 2023, there were over 1,500 drug-impaired drivers for each certified drug recognition expert (DRE) in the United States. Research has shown that a 10 percent increase in driving under the influence...
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