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Acknowledgements.

This publication was made possible through the generous financial contribution of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The Advisory Committee on Highway Safety of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) also acknowledges the hard work and creativity of the following people and their staffs who contributed articles or information for this deskbook:

We thank Commissioner Maurice J. Hannigan and Deputy Commissioner Dwight O. Helmick, California Highway Patrol; Director Richard L. Cade (retired) and Chief Legal Counsel Margaret P. White, Idaho Department of Law Enforcement; Superintendent Thomas J. Constantine (retired) and Superintendent James W. McMahon, New York State Police; Director Earl M. Sweeney, New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council; Colonel Charles M. Robinson (retired), Virginia State Police; Ted Schelinski, 3-M Corporation; Carl Spurgeon, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation; Lt. Colonel Larry N. Thompson (retired), Arizona Department of Public Safety; William Franey, the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances/NBSI; Major Ronald P. Miner (retired) and Officer Robert Wall, Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department; Lt. Colonel Richard N. Curtis (retired), Ohio State Highway Patrol; J. Michael Sheehan, Chief, Police Traffic Services Division, NHTSA; Director Russell M. Arend of the Institute for Police Technology and Management; Captain Douglas Hancock and Lieutenant Barry L. Peck, Delaware State Police; Colonel Charles W. Henderson, Massachusetts State Police; Major Robert J. Huss (deceased), Lieutenant Richard J. Phillips and Trooper William W. Messing, Washington State Patrol; Roy Lucke and Robert L. Reeder, The Traffic Institute, Northwestern University; the California Department of Transportation; and many other contributors.

We also express our appreciation to former Director Ron Sostkowski, Jack Grant, Chuck Peltier, E.J. Kelley, and Carolyn Cockroft of the IACP Division of State and Provincial Police for their work in editing, proofreading, and otherwise bringing this project to fruition; and to the members of the Advisory Committee on Highway Safety whose advice was invaluable at all times during the project.

Introduction

This book is intended for police leaders. After all, that's what you are whether you call yourselves commanders, administrators, executives, or supervisors, you are, first and foremost, leaders. It is intended as a quick and practical compendium of information to assist you in asserting your leadership in one of policing's most important functions, Police Traffic Services.

It has been fashionable for some time to emblazon the fenders and doors of police vehicles with slogans calling attention to such aspects of law enforcement as SERVICE and PROTECTION. But how often do we, as leaders, stop and think about how to serve and protect most effectively?

Over 188 million motor vehicles and more than 170 million licensed drivers travel over two trillion miles a year on our streets and highways. Hazardous materials in sufficient quantities to blow a small country off the map if stored, transported, or handled improperly pass our doorsteps every day. More people are killed in crashes on our streets and highways in a single year than in the nation's last major war.

In today's mobile society the motor vehicle is the primary tool used by criminals to reach the scene of the crime, and to elude the police. Carjacking, motor vehicle theft, drive-by shootings, drug deals, burglaries, and armed robberies-all involve the use of a motor vehicle.

Our entire nation is, indeed, a “nation on wheels," and traffic backups and delays during rush hour result in millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of productive hours lost to the economy and unnecessary environmental pollution each year. As drivers, citizens are more likely to have direct contact with a police officer than in any other aspect of their lives, and those contacts, both pleasant and unpleasant, shape the community's view of the police, one by one.

All of this adds up to the fact that few areas exist in law enforcement that affect the quality of life for our citizens as significantly as in the rendering of quality police traffic services.

The authors of this deskbook, all members or special consultants to the IACP Advisory Committee on Highway Safety, know from firsthand experience just how confusing and difficult are the problems you face. The many acronyms that describe various traffic safety programs, the myriad of federal agencies that set standards in this area, and the need to devise new and effective means of stretching your limited patrol resources—all add up to headaches for the new police leader as well as the veteran.

We hope that this deskbook, in looseleaf form to facilitate periodic updating, will provide you with a ready source of ideas and information as you go about your duties.