Police Chief Magazine|Columns|Traffic Safety Initiatives
Traffic Safety Initiatives: Traffic Enforcement Faces Interesting Times

There is an old curse once attributed to the Chinese but that is more likely of English origin that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” It is the first of three supposed curses of increasing severity, with the other two being, “May the government be aware of you,” and “May you find what you are looking for.”

As to the first part of the curse, we are certainly living in interesting times today. I am in my 53rd year as a sworn police officer, and I have never seen a more interesting time or one that will require every ounce of forbearance and ingenuity that we can muster to keep our law enforcement agencies viable and provide the array of services that is now expected of us with the diminishing resources that we are being given to do the job.

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Traffic Safety Initiatives: From Robo-Tripping to Counterflipping

New drug trends often appear first in the language people use, long before they reach training manuals....
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Empty Hands Save Lives

Officers conduct vehicle stops and pedestrian contacts by the thousands over the course of their career. The overwhelming majority of such interactions resolve without incident, and that statistical r...
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Traffic Safety Initiatives: Five Leadership Priorities for Combating Cannabis-Impaired Driving

Impaired driving remains one of the most persistent and consequential public safety challenges facing police leaders in the United States. Preliminary U.S. data indicate that more than 39,000 people w...
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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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