Risk targeted patrol plans use data to identify crash trends and show enforcement officers where, when and how to address road safety problems in their area. Once the “where” and “when” have been identified, the Police can then develop the “how” and patrol the roads in the knowledge that they are in the right place at the right time to make their presence most effective in preventing crashes. Identified sites are allocated at random by computer to make sure that the Police cover their whole area but avoiding a predictable patrol pattern. Much of the data used to identify trends comes from the Land Transport Safety Authority crash database but the longer term plan is to add data from other sources that will tailor information to a local level and encourage the sharing of information between Police and other road safety partners. The project has progressed to a stage where all police stations have access to the computer software. Development and evaluation continues but benefits should include better communication, improved targeting of resources, improved driver behaviour, reduced crash numbers and severity, and flow-on to targeting general crime. (Author/publisher)
Abstract