U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

On Traffic Safety and Law Enforcement

NCJ Number
223408
Journal
Geography & Public Safety Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 1-2
Author(s)
Ned Levine, Ph.D.
Date Published
July 2008
Length
2 pages
Annotation

This article outlines the content in this issue of Geography and Public Safety and its focus on the abilities of geographic information systems' technologies to assist law enforcement in traffic safety.

Abstract

Law enforcement officers devote significant time and energy to dealing with traffic safety, from managing crash scenes and filling out crash reports to creating strategies to reduce crash rates. Geographic information systems (GIS) and other information technologies can help police enforce traffic safety; however, few departments use GIS for law enforcement. Articles in this issue of Geography and Public Safety discuss how GIS technologies can be used for traffic safety analysis. In New Mexico, how maps have been used to examine drunk driving and provide an example of how well designed maps influence traffic safety. A geographic information system was developed in Houston, TX to identify crash hot spots, and another article describes how the Idaho State Police used statistical analysis to advise State patrolling practices. 3 references