Distracted Driving Summit Offers Chance to Address Issue Comprehensively

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) will be among the many organizations represented at this week's Distracted Driving Summit in the nation's capital, September 30 and October 1. GHSA Chairman Vernon F. Betkey, Jr. will be joined by GHSA Executive Director Barbara Harsha as well as GHSA Members from Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.

Chairman Betkey will present GHSA's perspective on Thursday, October 1 on a panel entitled "Legislation, Regulation and Enforcement for Dealing with Distracted Driving." According to Betkey, "GHSA is advocating a broad approach to distracted driving. New laws should not be an ending point, but rather a beginning. Effective enforcement strategies need to be developed and shared. We must also educate the public about how to best minimize and manage distractions behind the wheel."

To help educate our most distracted drivers, teens, tomorrow GHSA and Ford Motor Company Fund will host a special Ford Driving Skills for Life event focusing on distractions for a select number of D.C. area high school students. This unique course educates teens about the growing danger of driver distractions. Students will receive hands-on instruction and behind-the-wheel training from some of the nation's top driving instructors.

According to Betkey, "Education plays a key role in minimizing driver distraction, particularly with teen drivers, who constantly use cell phones and other electronic devices. High-tech, interactive programs such as Driving Skills for Life effectively complement state laws and graduated licensing programs and offer highway safety officials a tool to address driver distraction."

State cell phone and texting laws as well as an overview of the distracted driving issue can be found online at www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html. Betkey's Distracted Driving Forum presentation will be posted at www.ghsa.org on Thursday morning.

The Ford Driving Skills for Life event will be held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 29. Sessions begin at 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. Contact Wes Sherwood of Ford at 313-390-5660 for more information.

More information about the Distracted Driving Summit is posted online at: www.rita.dot.gov/distracted_driving_summit.

Quality-of-Life Policing: Do Offenders Get the Message?

In the 1990's, the New York Police Department increased patrols and the enforcement of laws against QOL offenses. Targeted offenses included fare-beating, aggressive panhandling, graffiti writing, and sleeping on public benches. In the past, police would have tended to ignore these minor offenses or use a mild intervention. Beginning in the mid-1990's the police targeted these QOL behaviors for arrest.

In order to test the deterrence effectiveness of such a policy, this study interviewed 539 arrestees in 1999. All of the study participants were asked a series of questions on QOL offending, regardless of whether or not they had been arrested for QOL violations. They were asked whether they perceived that police were targeting the behavior for warnings, tickets, or arrest; whether they had engaged in the behavior during the past year; if so, whether they had reduced or stopped such behavior during the previous 6 months; and if so, the reason for the reduction in the behavior.

The study found that almost all of the arrestees were aware that police were targeting various QOL offenses for arrest. Among those active in the specified QOL misbehaviors, about half reported that they had severely cut back or stopped their involvement in the behaviors in the past 6 months; approximately half had not. Those who reduced their proscribed QOL behaviors cited general police presence as the most important factor, suggesting that for them QOL policing was effective as a general deterrent. 6 tables and 44 references.

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