Summer Enforcement Project

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Marion County, Indiana is the largest urban area in the State, accounting for approximately 17 percent of the total population. Similar to most urban areas, the county has been experiencing a growth in criminal activity, a serious concern to both the general public and the law enforcement community. Summertime, in particular, marks a significant increase in crime, in addition to a marked increase in alcohol-related and other traffic crashes. The increase in criminal activity, coupled with limited police resources, has typically led to a transfer of law enforcement resources from traffic patrol to anti-crime enforcement. In recent years, however, traffic patrol has proven to be an effective tool in the reduction of criminal activity as well as reducing traffic violations by "looking beyond the traffic ticket" in focus.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The primary goal of the Summer Enforcement Project was to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries while demonstrating to local officials the positive effects of traffic patrols on criminal enforcement. This goal would be met by:

• Increasing traffic enforcement throughout the county, with an emphasis on speed, impaired driving and safety belt violations, particularly at high crash locations
• Increasing public support for traffic enforcement through a low-cost public information program
• Documenting the relationship between traffic enforcement and criminal arrests.

Marion County Traffic Safety Partnership (cont'd)

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

Throughout the program, emphasis was placed on maintaining a multi-jurisdictional, cooperative approach to traffic enforcement. The Marion County Sheriff's Department, three local police departments, and the Indiana State Police participated in the following cooperative activities:

• Project 55, a special speed enforcement program on the Interstates and any State roads with a 55 MPH speed limit
• Patrols of high crash intersections in Indianapolis during peak driving hours
• Impaired driver saturation patrols on weekends
• Weekly sobriety checkpoints held at random locations throughout the county
• Targeted public relations campaign sponsored by corporate partners
• On-going data collection on all citations and criminal arrests through the summer enforcement campaign.

RESULTS

The 10-week summer enforcement campaign yielded very significant results:

• 12,391 speeding citations 252 Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated arrests
• 1,499 safety belt citations 850 miscellaneous traffic citations
• 33 habitual traffic offender

arrests

The crime reduction benefits of traffic enforcement were clearly demonstrated as well during the 10-week period. Crime enforcement results include:

• 100 criminal misdemeanor arrests 46 criminal felony arrests
• 21 illegal firearms arrests 496 license violations.

The public information component of the program, which was sponsored by K-Mart, NASCAR driver John Andretti and a local ad agency, was also successful. More than 47,000 drivers per day pass the traffic safety billboard developed for the campaign. Sponsored ads were also placed in eight daily newspapers, with a combined readership of 489,513. A local radio station ran a feature story on the program.