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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:50 am
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Results for traffic violations
9 results foundAuthor: Leal, Nerida Title: Illegal Street Racing and Associated (Hooning) Behaviours Summary: In an Australian context, the term hooning refers to risky driving behaviours such as illegal street racing and speed trials, as well as behaviours that involve unnecessary noise and smoke, which include burn outs, donuts, fish tails, drifting and other skids. Hooning receives considerable negative media attention in Australia, and since the 1990s all Australian jurisdictions have implemented vehicle impoundment programs to deal with the problem. However, there is limited objective evidence of the road safety risk associated with hooning behaviours. Attempts to estimate the risk associated with hooning are limited by official data collection and storage practices, and the willingness of drivers to admit to their illegal behaviour in the event of a crash. International evidence suggests that illegal street racing is associated with only a small proportion of fatal crashes; however, hooning in an Australian context encompasses a broader group of driving behaviours than illegal street racing alone, and it is possible that the road safety risks will differ with these behaviours. There is evidence from North American jurisdictions that vehicle impoundment programs are effective for managing drink driving offenders, and drivers who continue to drive while disqualified or suspended both during and post-impoundment. However, these programs used impoundment periods of 30 – 180 days (depending on the number of previous offences). In Queensland the penalty for a first hooning offence is 48 hours, while the vehicle can be impounded for up to 3 months for a second offence, or permanently for a third or subsequent offence within three years. Thus, it remains unclear whether similar effects will be seen for hooning offenders in Australia, as no evaluations of vehicle impoundment programs for hooning have been published. To address these research needs, this program of research consisted of three complementary studies designed to: (1) investigate the road safety implications of hooning behaviours in terms of the risks associated with the specific behaviours, and the drivers who engage in these behaviours; and (2) assess the effectiveness of current approaches to dealing with the problem; in order to (3) inform policy and practice in the area of hooning behaviour. Study 1 involved qualitative (N = 22) and quantitative (N = 290) research with drivers who admitted engaging in hooning behaviours on Queensland roads. Study 2 involved a systematic profile of a large sample of drivers (N = 834) detected and punished for a hooning offence in Queensland, and a comparison of their driving and crash histories with a randomly sampled group of Queensland drivers with the same gender and age distribution. Study 3 examined the post-impoundment driving behaviour of hooning offenders (N = 610) to examine the effects of vehicle impoundment on driving behaviour. The theoretical framework used to guide the research incorporated expanded deterrence theory, social learning theory, and driver thrill-seeking perspectives. This framework was used to explore factors contributing to hooning behaviours, and interpret the results of the aspects of the research designed to explore the effectiveness of vehicle impoundment as a countermeasure for hooning. Variables from each of the perspectives were related to hooning measures, highlighting the complexity of the behaviour. This research found that the road safety risk of hooning behaviours appears low, as only a small proportion of the hooning offences in Study 2 resulted in a crash. However, Study 1 found that hooning-related crashes are less likely to be reported than general crashes, particularly when they do not involve an injury, and that higher frequencies of hooning behaviours are associated with hooning-related crash involvement. Further, approximately one fifth of drivers in Study 1 reported being involved in a hooning-related crash in the previous three years, which is comparable to general crash involvement among the general population of drivers in Queensland. Given that hooning-related crashes represented only a sub-set of crash involvement for this sample, this suggests that there are risks associated with hooning behaviour that are not apparent in official data sources. Further, the main evidence of risk associated with the behaviour appears to relate to the hooning driver, as Study 2 found that these drivers are likely to engage in other risky driving behaviours (particularly speeding and driving vehicles with defects or illegal modifications), and have significantly more traffic infringements, licence sanctions and crashes than drivers of a similar (i.e., young) age. Self-report data from the Study 1 samples indicated that Queensland’s vehicle impoundment and forfeiture laws are perceived as severe, and that many drivers have reduced their hooning behaviour to avoid detection. However, it appears that it is more common for drivers to have simply changed the location of their hooning behaviour to avoid detection. When the post-impoundment driving behaviour of the sample of hooning offenders was compared to their pre-impoundment behaviour to examine the effectiveness of vehicle impoundment in Study 3, it was found that there was a small but significant reduction in hooning offences, and also for other traffic infringements generally. As Study 3 was observational, it was not possible to control for extraneous variables, and is, therefore, possible that some of this reduction was due to other factors, such as a reduction in driving exposure, the effects of changes to Queensland’s Graduated Driver Licensing scheme that were implemented during the study period and affected many drivers in the offender sample due to their age, or the extension of vehicle impoundment to other types of offences in Queensland during the post-impoundment period. However, there was a protective effect observed, in that hooning offenders did not show the increase in traffic infringements in the post period that occurred within the comparison sample. This suggests that there may be some effect of vehicle impoundment on the driving behaviour of hooning offenders, and that this effect is not limited to their hooning driving behaviour. To be more confident in these results, it is necessary to measure driving exposure during the post periods to control for issues such as offenders being denied access to vehicles. While it was not the primary aim of this program of research to compare the utility of different theoretical perspectives, the findings of the research have a number of theoretical implications. For example, it was found that only some of the deterrence variables were related to hooning behaviours, and sometimes in the opposite direction to predictions. Further, social learning theory variables had stronger associations with hooning. These results suggest that a purely legal approach to understanding hooning behaviours, and designing and implementing countermeasures designed to reduce these behaviours, are unlikely to be successful. This research also had implications for policy and practice, and a number of recommendations were made throughout the thesis to improve the quality of relevant data collection practices. Some of these changes have already occurred since the expansion of the application of vehicle impoundment programs to other offences in Queensland. It was also recommended that the operational and resource costs of these laws should be compared to the road safety benefits in ongoing evaluations of effectiveness to ensure that finite traffic policing resources are allocated in a way that produces maximum road safety benefits. However, as the evidence of risk associated with the hooning driver is more compelling than that associated with hooning behaviour, it was argued that the hooning driver may represent the better target for intervention. Suggestions for future research include ongoing evaluations of the effectiveness of vehicle impoundment programs for hooning and other high-risk driving behaviours, and the exploration of additional potential targets for intervention to reduce hooning behaviour. As the body of knowledge regarding the factors contributing to hooning increases, along with the identification of potential barriers to the effectiveness of current countermeasures, recommendations for changes in policy and practice for hooning behaviours can be made. Details: Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology, 2010. 339p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 25, 2011 at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/43350/ Year: 2010 Country: Australia URL: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/43350/ Shelf Number: 123125 Keywords: Illegal DrivingStreet Racing (Australia)Teenage Automobile DriversTraffic Violations |
Author: Gideon's Army Title: Driving While Black: A report on racial profiling in Metro Nashville Police Department Traffic Stops Summary: Our report shows that "driving while black" constitutes a unique series of risks, vulnerabilities, and dangers at the hands of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that white drivers do not experience in the same way. Upon reviewing MNPD’s traffic stop database, our report finds that: • Between 2011-2015, MNPD conducted 7.7 times more traffic stops annually than the U.S. national average • Between 2011-2015, MNPD made more stops of black people than there were black people 16 years old and over living in Davidson County • Between 2011-2015, MNPD consistently and unnecessarily stopped and searched black drivers in predominantly black, Hispanic, and low-income communities at rates substantially higher than they did white drivers in predominantly middle to upper income communities • MNPD consent searches are invasive and fail to yield incriminating evidence 88.4% of the time. • Evidence of unlawful activity is found during searches of white drivers more often than in searches of black and Hispanic drivers • Nearly 80% of all MNPD traffic stops in 2015 result in a warning, and, in traffic stops including a search of the vehicle or driver, between one-third and half result in a warning, which means hundreds of thousands of drivers are being stopped and searched unnecessarily every year • Since 2012, Operation Safer Streets (OSS) has resulted in more than 58,000 vehicle stops and 11,000 arrests, the vast majority of which were concentrated in communities of color. More than 90% of OSS arrests were for misdemeanors, often for possession of small amounts of marijuana or driving without a license, and more than 80% of stops yielded no evidence that warranted arrest. Our interviews with black drivers in Nashville show that: • Metro police officers regularly intimidate, harass, and unfairly exert their authority over black drivers • Aggressive tactics by officers result in traumatizing experiences of fear for one’s safety and the safety of one’s family and friends • Black drivers experience anger at being treated unjustly and disrespectfully, frustration derived from being profiled because of one's race and its assumed correspondence to criminality, and the feeling that police do not "serve and protect" black people like they do white people Through these findings, our report shows that MNPD's traffic stop practices impose a severe disparate or discriminatory impact on the predominantly black and low-income communities that MNPD’s traffic stop and search regime disproportionately targets. MNPD's internal reports justify these disparities based on an alleged correlation between where stops are made and the number of crime reports in the area. However, our findings show that traffic enforcement targets and impacts entire communities, not just people who commit crimes, and that regardless of the area, black people are searched at much higher rates than white people. For these reasons, racial disparities in policing are unlikely to be caused by individual officers’ behaviors alone, but by institutional norms and policies that justify targeting predominantly black and low-income communities. The MNPD traffic stop lesson plan used as part of officer training shows that the department is primarily focused on using traffic stops as a way to gain entry into vehicles and search them (See Section II). In practice, this means making pretextual traffic stops for technicalities, such as rolling through a stop sign or having a broken taillight, in order to get an opportunity to make contact with the occupants, use manipulative forms of engagement to gain consent to search, and search drivers and their vehicles. While the lesson plan does not explicitly prioritize stops and searches of black drivers, MNPD disproportionately deploys its patrol officers to predominantly black and low-income communities, and as our report shows, black drivers are more likely than white drivers to be stopped, stopped multiple times in a year, and searched during a traffic stop, even though searches of black drivers are less successful in yielding criminal evidence than are searches of white drivers. MNPD's overwhelmingly unsuccessful and disparately impactful over-policing of predominantly black and low-income communities raises serious concerns about the effectiveness, legitimacy, and constitutionality of MNPD's traffic stop and search regime. Furthermore, the fact that Nashville's unnecessarily high rate of total traffic stops does not reduce traffic accidents and injuries (Finding 1) and does not appear to make any significant impact on crime rates compared to other cities making fewer stops (Demand 1) calls MNPD's policing strategies into question both legally and ethically. The core findings of our report analyze traffic stops of black, white, and Hispanic drivers. Details: Nashville, TN: Gideon's Army, 2016. 213p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 23, 2017 at: https://drivingwhileblacknashville.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/driving-while-black-gideons-army.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://drivingwhileblacknashville.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/driving-while-black-gideons-army.pdf Shelf Number: 144558 Keywords: Driving While BlackRacial DisparitiesRacial ProfilingRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and SearchTraffic StopsTraffic Violations |
Author: West, Jeremy Title: Racial Bias in Police Investigations Summary: Endogenous selection into police encounters typically complicates evaluations of law enforcement discrimination. This study overcomes selection concerns by examining automobile crash investigations, for which officer dispatch is demonstrably exogenous to drivers' race. I find State Police officers issue significantly more traffic citations to drivers whose race differs from their own. This bias is evident for both moving and nonmoving violations, the latter indicating a preference for discriminatory leniency towards same-race individuals. I show this treatment is unmitigated by socioeconomic factors: officers cite other-race drivers more frequently regardless of their age, gender, vehicle value, or characteristics of the local community. Details: Santa Cruz, CA: University of California at Santa Cruz, 2018. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 19, 2018 at: https://people.ucsc.edu/~jwest1/articles/West_RacialBiasPolice.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: =https://people.ucsc.edu/~jwest1/articles/West_RacialBiasPolice.pdf Shelf Number: 149173 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial DiscriminationTraffic Violations |
Author: Glensor, Ronald W. Title: The Problem of Cruising Summary: This guide begins by describing the problem of cruising, and reviewing factors that contribute to it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local cruising problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. You should note that while both cruising and street racing involve vehicles, some primary differences exist between them. Cruising is a pastime largely confined to downtown areas; sanctioned cruising can also provide an economic boost to the community. For example, northern Nevada's weeklong "Hot August Nights" event generated $132 million for the cities of Reno and Sparks, with more than 800,000 people attending (RRC Associates 2003). Conversely, street racing is typically an underground affair, causing many related problems. The simplest definition of cruising is "unnecessary repetitive driving." Attempts to legally define cruising have been more difficult, however, as people have successfully challenged anti-cruising ordinances in court on constitutional grounds. Since at least the 1950s, people have cruised for a variety of reasons: to show off their own car, to see other people's cars, to find racing competitors, to impress members of the opposite sex, and to socialize.2 Reinvigorated and glamorized by popular films such as American Graffiti, cruising remains an enormously popular rite of passage for many young people.3 Today's cruisers drive a variety of vehicles: classic cars, pickup trucks, mini-trucks, muscle cars, lowriders (whose chassis narrowly clear the ground), and even motorcycles. Cruisers are particularly prevalent on Friday and Saturday nights, and they can number in the thousands. Among the most common cruisers are the owners of classic, restored and custom cars, who most often view the activity as an opportunity to showcase their automobiles. Among the most common cruisers are the owners of classic, restored and custom cars, who most often view the activity as an opportunity to showcase their automobiles. Credit: Nattalie Hoch But cruising is not purely harmless fun. It creates problems for the police, nonparticipating motorists, some businesses, and the community at large. Among them are conflicts between cruisers (including gang-related violence), littering, noise (from vehicle engines, screeching tires, car stereos, and exuberant fans), traffic congestion (including obstruction of emergency vehicles), traffic crashes, and vandalism and unintentional property damage. While cruising creates business for some merchants, it impedes business for others. In some jurisdictions, cruisers have divided up along racial, ethnic, and subcultural lines: blacks, Hispanics, punkers and heavy metal groups, the cowboy/western set, and so forth. Sometimes these divisions lead to group conflicts and violence, causing injury to participants and innocent bystanders and heightening fear in the wider community. In some jurisdictions, cruising has taken on a "rock concert" environment in which disorder, violence, and police enforcement are integral to the experience, and even expected and desired by the participants. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services: 2004. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Specific Guides Series No. 29: Accessed May 21, 2018 at: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/pdfs/cruising.pdf Year: 2004 Country: United States URL: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/pdfs/cruising.pdf Shelf Number: 95751 Keywords: Anti-Social BehaviorCruisingNuisance BehaviorsTraffic Violations |
Author: Chohlas-Wood, Alex Title: An Analysis of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department's Traffic Stop Practices Summary: For the last several years, Nashville has made considerably more traffic stops per capita than the national average, with stops disproportionately involving black drivers. Here we examine the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department's (MNPD) traffic stop practices in 2017, drawing on an extensive dataset of records provided by the department. Black drivers were stopped 44% more often per driving-age resident when compared to white drivers; this gap is particularly pronounced among stops for non-moving violations (68%), such as broken tail lights and expired registration tags. These disparities stem, in part, from a strategy that concentrates traffic stops in high-crime areas. In particular, after controlling for location, disparities among non-moving violation stops drop from 68% to 37%. This policy of concentrating stops in high-crime areas may be predicated on the belief that traffic stops are an effective tactic for reducing burglaries, robberies, and other criminal activity. We find, however, no immediate or long-term impact of traffic stops on serious crime. We further find that only 1.6% of stops result in a custodial arrest-often for license violations or drugs. These findings suggest that the MNPD could reduce traffic stops without an associated rise in serious crime, while bringing Nashville’s traffic stop rates more in line with similar cities around the country. In particular, the MNPD could substantially reduce racial disparities by curtailing stops for non-moving violations. Notably, a small proportion of active MNPD officers conduct the majority of non-moving violation stops, potentially facilitating any effort to reduce such stops. Details: Stanford, CA: Stanford Computational Policy Lab, 2018. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2019 at: https://policylab.stanford.edu/media/nashville-traffic-stops.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://policylab.stanford.edu/media/nashville-traffic-stops.pdf Shelf Number: 155365 Keywords: Driving While Black High-Crime Areas Racial Disparities Racial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Stop and Search Traffic Stops Traffic Violations |
Author: New York University School of Law, Policing Project Title: An Assessment of Traffic Stops and Policing Strategies in Nashville Summary: In 2016-17, two events took place that focused public attention on policing in Nashville—and revealed longstanding tensions around police-community relations, particularly in some of Nashville's communities of color. In October 2016, Gideon's Army released a report that pointed to MNPD's longstanding practice of making large numbers of stops in high crime neighborhoods-and it pointed to substantial racial disparities in those stops. Then, in February 2017, an MNPD officer shot and killed Jocques Clemmons, leading to protests and further concern about policing in Nashville. Later that year, then-Mayor Megan Barry reached out and asked the Policing Project at NYU Law to offer suggestions for a plan to address community concerns, and help chart a path to strengthen the partnership between MNPD and the communities it serves. Although the nature of our assignment changed somewhat at the mayoral transition, in general we were asked to continue our efforts. In the succeeding sections, we explain the approach we recommended to Mayors Barry and Briley, what we learned from our work, and our recommendations for how Nashville and MNPD might move forward in light of what we have learned. Before doing so, though, we introduce the Policing Project. This is important because we take a somewhat unique approach to issues of public safety reforms, which necessarily frames the recommendations we make. Details: New York: Author, 2018. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2019 at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58a33e881b631bc60d4f8b31/t/5bf2d18d562fa747a554f6b0/1542640014294/Policing+Project+Nashville+Report.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58a33e881b631bc60d4f8b31/t/5bf2d18d562fa747a554f6b0/1542640014294/Policing+Project+Nashville+Report.pdf Shelf Number: 155366 Keywords: Driving While Black Racial Disparities Racial Profiling Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Stop and Search Traffic Stops Traffic violations |
Author: Garrett, Brandon L. Title: Driver's License Suspension in North Carolina Summary: In this Article, we analyze data concerning driver's license suspension for traffic offenses. The interest of a person in a driver's license is "substantial," and the suspension of a license by the state can result in "inconvenience and economic hardship suffered," as the U.S. Supreme Court has observed, including because a license may "essential in the pursuit of a livelihood." However, in this analysis of North Carolina data, we found that there are 1,225,000 active driver's licenses suspensions in North Carolina for non-driving related reasons, relating to failure to pay traffic fines and court courts, and failure to appear in court for traffic offenses. These suspensions constitute about 15% of all adult drivers in the state. Of those, 827,000 are for failure to appear in court, 263,000 for failure to comply with orders to pay traffic costs, fines, and fees, and 135,000 for both. These suspensions are disproportionately imposed on minority residents. Of those with driver's license suspensions, 33% of those with failure to appear suspensions are black and 24% Latinx, while 35% were white. The demographics for all North Carolina residents who are of driving age include: 65% white, 21% black, and 8% Latinx. Still more severe consequences, DWLR charges, also disproportionately fall on minority residents. We also conducted a series of mixed-model linear regressions on North Carolina driver's license suspensions from 2010-2017, analyzing the effects of race, poverty, population size, traffic court cases and traffic stops on suspensions per county. Overall, population accounts for most of the variation in suspensions: the more people in the county, the more people have suspended licenses. When we control for population, we see little evidence that traffic stops or traffic cases are driving suspensions. We find that the relationship between the number of people in poverty and the number of suspensions in a county is dependent on race. Put another way, increasing a county's population by one white individual below poverty increases the number of suspensions by a greater amount than increasing the county's population by one white above poverty. However, increasing the population by one black individual below poverty increases the number of suspensions by less than increasing the county population by one black individual above poverty. This suggests that poverty functions differently for whites than it does for blacks. We conclude by setting out questions for future research, and describing both law and policy responses to driver's license suspensions in other jurisdictions, including: constitutional challenges, restoration efforts, dismissals of charges, and legislative efforts to restore licenses and end the suspension of driver's licenses for non-driving related traffic offenses. Details: Durham, NC: Duke University School of Law, 2019. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 18, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355599 Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355599 Shelf Number: 155459 Keywords: Court AppearanceDrivers License SuspensionsFines and FeesPovertyRacial DisparitiesTraffic OffensesTraffic Violations |
Author: Chicago. Office of Inspector General Title: Red-Light Camera Program Review Summary: On July 18, 2014, the Chicago Tribune published a report detailing "sudden spikes" in the number of violations captured by red-light cameras (RLCs) at some intersections in Chicago. According to the Tribune report, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials were unaware of these anomalies until notified by Tribune reporters, and CDOT could not explain the anomalies. The Tribune report concluded that "the deviations in Chicago's network of [384] cameras were caused by faulty equipment, human tinkering or both." At the request of the Mayor and members of the City Council, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed the City's RLC program to better assess the program generally and the issues identified by the Chicago Tribune report in particular. In order to provide a rapid response to both constituent requests and public concerns raised by the Tribune report, OIG conducted a limited scope review rather than a comprehensive audit, which would have required additional months of document and data collection, review and analysis. Our conclusions are therefore limited to the evidence we were able to obtain and verify in this short timeframe. In addition, OIG did not review the validity of individual violations captured during the enforcement anomalies, which was the focus of a separate review the City conducted with the assistance of a contractor retained for that purpose. Rather, OIG's goals were to, - determine the contract parameters and document historical management of the RLC program; - ensure that the system was and is operating pursuant to the applicable contract provisions; and - ascertain if CDOT is equipped to identify and expeditiously address ticketing anomalies and other problems in the future. OIG's review revealed that CDOT's management of the RLC program as operated by Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc. was insufficient to identify and resolve the types of issues identified in the Tribune report. Specifically, CDOT failed to request and review reports from Redflex that may have revealed enforcement anomalies as they occurred and failed to enforce the terms of its contract with Redflex, which required Redflex to evaluate data and identify any anomalies in RLC system activity. Under its new contract with Xerox State & Local Solutions, Inc., CDOT has taken steps to improve the Department's RLC contract management. OIG encourages CDOT to proactively monitor the program and address issues, including any anomalies, as they arise. RLC program information OIG reviewed did not contain evidence that the City or Redflex manipulated the RLC program with the intention of improperly increasing red-light violations, although due to missing Redflex maintenance records OIG could not conclusively dismiss this possibility. During the course of OIG's review, CDOT identified likely proximate causes for three of the twelve intersections specifically named in the Tribune report. OIG reviewed CDOT's findings regarding these locations and found them consistent with source documentation and available records. Details: Chicago: Author, 2014. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 10, 2019 at: https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/Red%20Light%20Camera%20Review.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/Red%20Light%20Camera%20Review.pdf Shelf Number: 155735 Keywords: Red Light Cameras Traffic Enforcement Traffic Safety Traffic Violations |
Author: McBride, Christopher Title: A Review of Red Light Camera Programs in New York State Summary: In New York State, five municipalities currently operate red light cameras: New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Yonkers, and Rochester. These programs will expire on December 1, 2014, if not reauthorized by the state legislature and the Governor. AAA New York State has conducted a review of these five red light camera programs to assist policymakers and the public in their debate over the future of red light cameras. Automated enforcement can play a role in improving traffic safety. Red light running is dangerous behavior that merits a significant deterrent. Consequently, AAA supports properly administered red light camera programs. Unfortunately, the lack of transparency surrounding the programs in New York State fuels public suspicion that the programs are primarily for revenue generation. Despite the legislative requirement that each municipality submit an annual report on the impact of red light cameras, the reports have, to varying degrees, failed to comply with such obligations. The information provided was insufficient to conduct a rigorous statewide analysis of the traffic safety benefits of red light camera programs. Accordingly, this review will focus on the quality of these reports and ways to improve them. Since New York municipalities have circumvented the mandated assessment provisions, they should not be permitted to assume full control of red light cameras. AAA New York State strongly opposes any bill that would remove state oversight, and instead proposes an extension of the pilot programs, with the caveat that state requirements must be strictly enforced. In particular, AAA New York State recommends: - Extending the pilot program for two years. - Requiring disclosure of reports to the public. - Penalizing municipalities for late or low-quality reports. - Clarifying the requirements for the report. - Creating a photo enforcement oversight committee. The 2014 legislative session is a critical juncture for red light camera programs. Each year, nearly $100 million flows from motorists' pockets to local budgets and camera vendor profit margins, so it is imperative that state officials hold municipalities accountable. Eliminating state oversight – or even maintaining the inadequate status quo – would effectively condone municipalities' disregard for both the letter of the law and its intent, and would remove any incentive to perform a thorough evaluation. New York State must act decisively to fix these programs; otherwise, red light cameras will continue to erode trust between citizens and their government – perhaps irreparably. Details: Garden City, New York: Legislative Committee, 2014. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2019 at: http://cqrcengage.com/aaanys/file/I67wt7xCVVS/A%20Review%20of%20Red%20Light%20Camera%20Programs%20in%20New%20York%20State.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://cqrcengage.com/aaanys/file/I67wt7xCVVS/A%20Review%20of%20Red%20Light%20Camera%20Programs%20in%20New%20York%20State.pdf Shelf Number: 156014 Keywords: Red Light Cameras Traffic Enforcement Traffic Safety Traffic Violations |