Evaluation of 1982 Selective Speed Enforcement Projects in Virginia

About the report:

This report describes and evaluates Virginia's FY 1982 selective speed enforcement projects. The state allocates federal monies among competing state and local police agencies to fund their efforts to reduce identified crash problems. As a condition of the state grant, the federal government requires that the effectiveness of the programs be evaluated. Virginia devoted $592,545 of its federal allocation for highway safety activities to selective enforcement in FY 1982. Of this amount, $266,675 went to the Department of State Police and $325,870 to 18 city, town, and county police and sheriff's departments. This report describes each of the 19 projects, including the project goals, proposed and conducted enforcement activity, and results achieved. The descriptions are followed by a general statistical analysis that compares selective and nonselective enforcement jurisdictions across the state. Each project director established activity, citation, and crash goals, and the evaluations of the projects primarily compare the goals with the results. Many localities did not have a sufficient number of crashes for the computation of statistical values from which to make comparisons. Consequently, a more general chi-square analysis was used to compare crash data from all selective enforcement jurisdictions to data from all jurisdictions which had no selective enforcement projects. The report states whether each project did or did not meet its goals and attempts to explain the results. The statistical analysis revealed that selective speed enforcement did not appear to reduce fatal, injury, or total crashes during 1982. Following are brief findings, conclusions, and recommendations; however, the reader should consult the text to determine results and conclusions for a given project.

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