Fast track courts and video cameras used for drink driving evidence were introduced to help speed up the progress of drink driving cases through the courts in Ontario where they were causing a backlog. This study assesses the perception of the usefulness of such procedures among legal and justice personnel involved with these initiatives and attempts to identify factors giving rise to these perceptions. Because of the small scale of implementation of these measures a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was employed. Of particular interest was whether perceptions of usefulness were strongly determined by the perceived operational effects of the measure eg. the impact of the measure on workload and effect on aggressive behaviour during procedures.
Abstract