Research Catalog

Title

Traffic and the police; variations in law-enforcement policy [by] John A. Gardiner.

Author

Gardiner, John A., 1937-

Publication

Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1969.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 176 pages illustrations; 22 cm.

Summary

• Although laws governing moving-traffic violations are fairly uniform throughout the United States, the effective levels of enforcement of these laws vary dramatically from city to city. Basing this study on statistics from nearly seven hundred police departments, census data, personal interviews, on-the-spot observation, and detailed case studies of four Massachusetts cities Mr. Gardiner identifies and discusses the factors that determine police decisionmaking in relation to traffic violations.
• Although laws governing moving-traffic violations are fairly uniform throughout the United States, the effective levels of enforcement of these laws vary dramatically from city to city. Basing this study on statistics from nearly seven hundred police departments, census data, personal interviews, on-the-spot observation, and detailed case studies of four Massachusetts cities--Lynn, Waltham, Malden, and Cambridge--Mr. Gardiner identifies and discusses the factors that determine police decisionmaking in relation to traffic violations. After a brief description of the role of various state and local agencies in settling traffic-enforcement policy, the author analyzes in depth the traffic activities of the four Massachusetts cities. He examines in particular the extent of public pressure in seeking modification of enforcement standards, intradepartmental practices, or "norms," and the role of traffic enforcement in the total spectrum of police activities. Following the case studies, the author discusses the variations among the traffic policies of municipal police departments, and questions the "public pressure" interpretation of police policies. Mr. Gardiner finds that, although citizens and city officials frequently seek to influence individual decisions, they seldom know how strict or lenient their department's general policies are, and seldom care. In addition, the author finds no significant connection between the severity of ticketing policies and such factors as income, race, or education, but does find some correlation with the geographical stability of a city's population. Finally, the author concludes that the chief source of departmental traffic policy is an internally established set of norms concerning the importance of traffic work and the frequency with which officers should write tickets. Evidence from cities that change their traffic policies indicates that individual preferences on the part of chiefs or ranking officers are the primary source of these norms. This book is an important contribution to the growing area in social sciences that deals with law enforcement and, more broadly, local political systems.

Series Statement

Publications of the Joint Center for Urban Studies

Uniform Title

Publication of the Joint Center for Urban Studies.

Subject

• Traffic police > Massachusetts
• Traffic regulations > Massachusetts
• Traffic police
• Traffic regulations
• Polizei
• Verkehr
• Law enforcement
• Traffic law enforcement
• Traffic violations
• Police Enforcement
• Traffic Violations/ Moving Violations
• Massachusetts
• Großbritannien

Note

• Based on author's thesis--Harvard, 1966.
• "Portions of this study were previously presented in different form as a paper at the 1966 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, subsequently published in James Q. Wilson, ed., City politics and public policy (New York: John Wiley, 1968)."

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliographical footnotes.

Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Tables -- Introduction: Variations in Traffic-Law Enforcement -- 1 / The Formal Organization -- 2 / Lynn: Leniency in a Residual Police Function -- 3 / Waltham: Pleasing All of the People All of the Time -- 4 / Maiden: Political Activity and Complacency -- 5 / Cambridge: Changing Organizational Incentives -- 6 / The Political Context: Public Pressures on the Police -- 7 / The Influence of Environment -- 8 / Police Discretion and Effective Rates of Law Enforcement -- Appendix: Research Methods -- Index -- Backmatter.

LCCN

• 69018030
• 10.4159/harvard.9780674491618

OCLC

• ocm00012902
• 12902
• SCSB-291271

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library