New Canaan Police to Harness Power of Data in Traffic Enforcement Effort

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Harnessing new tools to improve traffic safety, New Canaan police will start using granular-level data—dealing with accident hotspots and contributing factors, for example—to conduct “intense and deliberate traffic enforcement” here, Chief Leon Krolikowski said.

Police in New Canaan stop 5,000 motor vehicles per year for violations and average 450 accidents, including 55 with injuries that sometimes are fatal. Krolikowski said there are emerging opportunities to “more effectively conduct both traffic education and enforcement.”

“In addition, a near future goal is to create dedicated traffic enforcement officers that analyze accident data, identify hotspots, do enforcement and then look at the outcomes,” Krolikowski said.

The comments come as New Canaan police officers this week attend no-cost training sessions on the practice from state agencies.

Data Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety”—or “DDACTS”— is administered by theDepartment of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Police Officer Standards and Training Council’s Field Services Training Division, in partnership with the Connecticut HighwaySafety Office.

The model starts with data collection and analysis and then supports enforcement through community partnerships. Here are the seven guiding principles of the program, straight from the state website:

  1. Partners and Stakeholder Participation – Partnerships between law enforcement agencies and local stakeholders establish support for high-visibility traffic enforcement and get participation that aids the development of strategic countermeasures and operational plans.
  2. Data Collection– Crime, crash, and traffic data coded for the type of incident, time of day and of week and location are the building blocks for DDACTS.
  3. Data Analysis– Integrated maps that overlay crime, crash and traffic data let agencies identify hot spots.
  4. Strategic Operations– Based on these analyses, agencies can identify enforcement activities and countermeasures that realign workflow and operational assignments to focus police efforts and increase efficiency.
  5. Information Sharing and Outreach– Fundamentals to DDACTS are the sharing of results, community participation, and documentation of accomplishments.  Progress reports that give management the documentation they need to keep officers informed, meet with community members and report to administrative and elected officials.
  6. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Adjustments– Data collection and analysis allow for monitoring, evaluation and adjusting field and internal operations.  They also let staff assess crime and crash reductions, cost savings, and other outcome measure that define success.
  7. Outcomes– Goals and objectives that emerge during problem identification and strategic planning are developed into outcome measures that assess effectiveness in crime, crash and traffic violation reductions; cost savings; use of specific interventions; and personnel deployment.

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