Responsibility.Org: New report helps law enforcement, community leaders improve public’s engagement in making roads safer

Responsibility.org and Safe Night, LLC today announced “Proactive Engagement in Traffic Enforcement and Safety,” a comprehensive report providing specific recommendations to state and local law enforcement agencies to more effectively engage with communities to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities.

"Our goal is to provide law enforcement agencies with a clear roadmap for meaningful and proactive community engagement. Establishing trust with community stakeholders is a crucial initial step in launching successful initiatives, garnering ongoing support, and collaboratively reducing traffic crashes and fatalities," stated Molly C. Mastoras, MA, LPC, president of Safe Night.

The report provides a foundational model for purposeful, proactive engagement to help reach more community stakeholders and builds trust in the community. The report also includes recommendations for State Highway Safety Offices, State Departments of Transportation, and the National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration to support proactive engagement initiatives.
The report provides eight specific recommendations to law enforcement:

• Proactively engage with community stakeholders, such as child protective services, mental health services, substance abuse services, victim-witness offices and advocates, the courts, and community groups;
• Implement and prioritize problem-oriented policing;
• Incorporate public participation;
• Reprioritize the use of police officers’ “uncommitted time”;
• Reasonable suspicion for consent vehicle searches and supporting documentation;
• Engage with other law enforcement agencies;
• Enhance NHTSA’s Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety “High Visibility Engagement” through cultural competence and relationship-based policing;
• Produce community engagement plan and implement a strategic management plan.

Responsibility.org, a national not-for-profit funded by leading distilled spirits companies to eliminate underage drinking, end drunk and impaired driving, and promote a lifetime of responsible alcohol choices, led the effort for the creation of this report and recruited Safe Night to complete it. Safe Night assists communities in developing collaborative programs focused on the co-production of safety among municipal agencies and community stakeholders using an innovative relationship-based model.