Reducing speeding via inanimate police presence
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12513 |
| Author | Mark McCutcheon,Rylan Simpson,Darryl Lal |
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
DOI: ./- .
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH IN POLICE POLICY AND PRACTICE
Reducing speeding via inanimate police
presence:
An evaluation of a police-directed field study regarding motorist
behavior
Rylan Simpson1Mark McCutcheon2Darryl Lal3
Simon Fraser University
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
City of Coquitlam
Correspondence
RylanSimpson, School of Criminology,
SimonFraser University, University
Drive,Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada,
VAS.
Email:rylan_simpson@sfu.ca
Research Summary: The present research uses data
from a police-directed field study to explore the effects
of police presence on speeding in two large cities in
British Columbia, Canada. As part of the study, an
inanimate but realistic-appearing police cut-out (“Con-
stable Scarecrow”) was strategically positioned along
roadways while motorist speed was measured using a
radar-recording device. The analyses of the multisite
evaluation reveal that the presence of the cut-out can
reduce speeding when deployed along arterial roadways.
Policy Implications: Traffic collisions are a leading
cause of death and nonfatal injuries for people world-
wide. A well-documented contributor to traffic colli-
sions is speed. Controlling speed has thus become a
priority for government, police, and community groups
across the world. The findings from the present research
demonstrate that police can reduce speeding via their
inanimate presence. This is the first known study to eval-
uate the effects of an inanimate but realistic-appearing
police cut-out on motorist behavior: a sustainable, low-
cost, and easily implementable intervention for commu-
nities of all sizes in all places.
KEYWORDS
accident prevention, deterrence, enforcement, policing, road
safety, speeding, traffic collisions
Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. © American Society of Criminology 997wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp
998 SIMPSON .
1 INTRODUCTION
Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for people aged to and the eighth leading
cause of death for all people worldwide (World Health Organization, ). They are responsi-
ble for more than . million fatalities and millions of more nonfatal injuries each year (World
Health Organization, ). Their financial costs exceed well into the hundreds of billions of dol-
larsand the emotional tolls in which they inflict on motorists, families, and communities are
immeasurable. Given their salience and relevance to both public health and public concern, it is
not surprising that a substantial body of research has dedicated itself to understanding traffic col-
lisions and their causes and correlates (e.g., Aarts & van Schagen, ; Blincoe, Miller,Zaloshnja,
& Lawrence, ; Blows, Ameratunga,Ivers, Lo, & Norton, ; Joksch, ; Mashhadi, Saha, &
Ksaibati, ; Prati, Puchades, De Angelis, Fraboni, & Pietrantoni, ; Richter, Berman, Fried-
man, & Ben-David, ; Rolison, Regev, Moutari, & Feeney, ). It is also not surprising that
reducing traffic collisions via intervention programsremains a priority for groups across the world
and that testing the effects of such programs remains a focal area of empirical scholarship (e.g.,
Armour, ; Blais & Dupont, ; Carr, Schnelle, & Kirchner, ; Chen, Meckle, & Wilson,
;Clary,; Damsere-Derry et al., ; Elvik, ; Gehlert, Schulze, & Schlag, ; Hol-
land & Conner, ; Kaplan et al., ; Mashhadi et al., ;Ravani&Wang,;Redelmeier,
Tibshirani, & Evans, ; Roqué & Roberts, ;Shinar&Stiebel,; Stanojević, Sullman,
Jovanović, & Stanojević, ; Tester, Rutherford, Wald, & Rutherford,).
Although many of the interventions tested as part of existing research have demonstrated
effectiveness in reducing traffic collisions and/or the correlates of such collisions, their effects
have sometimes been small, their scope has sometimes been limited, and their financial and/or
resource costs have generally been high. Drawing from both criminological theory and accident
prevention literature, the present research contributes to this body of research by evaluating the
effects of an inanimate but realistic-appearing police cut-out (“Constable Scarecrow”) on motorist
speed: a well-documented predictor of traffic collisions (e.g., Aarts & van Schagen, ;Blincoe
et al., ;Farmer,;Farmer,Retting,&Lund,; Friedman, Hedeker, & Richter, ;
Joksch, ; Mashhadi et al., ; Patterson, Frith, Povey, & Keall, ; Richter et al., ).
The results of the multisite, police-directed field study reveal that the presence of the cut-out can
significantly reduce speeding when deployed along arterial roadways.This is the first known study
to evaluate the effects of an inanimate police officer on motorist behavior: a sustainable, low-cost,
and easily implementable intervention for communities of all sizes in all places.
2BACKGROUND
A long line of research has sought to evaluate the relationships between motorist behavior and
traffic collisions. For example, Blows et al. () found that riskydriving behaviors, as defined by
speeding, racing, driving unlicensed and receiving prior traffic convictions, were positively asso-
ciated with the likelihood of being injured while driving. Prati et al. () reported that motorist
behavior (including errors, critical maneuvers, and traffic violations) and infrastructure charac-
teristics (including intersection styles and road markings) increased the risk of traffic collisions
involving bicyclists. And Rolison et al. () argued that the views of police officers and the driv-
ing public accurately reflected manyof the major contributors to traffic collisions, including exces-
sive speed and driver inexperience. Although the goal of this introduction is not to review each of
these individual contributors in detail, one variable that warrants further attention is speed.
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