Enforcement Engineering: A Scientific and Proactive Approach to the Simultaneous Reduction of Crime and Improvement of Road Safety

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Under the traditional enforcement systems, enforcement officers and city engineers typically wait until a location is identified as a problem area for crimes or traffic collisions before taking law enforcement action. Enforcement may then involve an automatic system or field officers. Either approach is reactive rather than proactive. In contrast, the proposed “enforcement engineering” strategies are based on data-driven, scientific analysis. This approach is more sophisticated, intelligence-led, and predictive in the sense that enforcement strategies target areas where, because high numbers of crimes and collisions are predicted, enforcement will be more efficient and can contribute to crime and collision prevention. The main goal of the proposed research program is twofold: 1) to introduce and establish a new, data-driven and analytical engineering program of enforcement designed to simultaneously and proactively reduce the expected number of future crimes and collisions; and 2) to develop a sustainable and commercializable mobile enforcement dispatch system (e.g., iPhone or Android Apps) designed to provide hands-on assistance for the various enforcement strategies of field agencies across Canada. Reactive enforcement based heavily on past history, elements of intuition, and even some random input (911 calls) is highly likely to be less cost-effective than proactive enforcement based on prevention and focused data supported intelligence and analysis, especially if the proactive enforcement can be designed to reduce crimes and collisions simultaneously. Due to the development of advanced geospatial and geostatistical technologies, and due to the modern GIS techniques, it is now possible to predict and identify hotspots associated with a high number of crimes and collisions. It is also possible to identify hotspots where particular types of crimes and collisions overlap. The overlapping hotspots are known to vary by time of day, day in the week, and month, and the shortest patrol routes to reach the hotspots will also vary. The proposed mobile enforcement dispatch system will broadcast the overlapping hotspots and the shortest patrol routes to field enforcement officers’ handheld devices on a real-time basis. Scientific enforcement engineering has an additional advantage. Some members of the public, including some City Council members, are suspicious of the motivation underlying existing law enforcement actions and complain of profiling or revenue-driven ticketing. Without clear justification based on scientific data analysis that determines the areas, times, and routes for specific law enforcement, it is difficult to counter these wide-spread suspicions. The proposed study will contribute to reducing the suspicions and is expected to increase the public’s support for various enforcement strategies. Dr. Park and his research team at U of S have recently partnered with Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), the traffic safety authority in Saskatchewan, to develop a GIS based collision mapping system for various cities in Saskatchewan. The system currently analyses spatial collision patterns and uses the patterns mainly to identify potential locations for surface infrastructure improvements. The proposed NSERC DG research will build on the collision mapping system to include the mapping of crimes and various enforcement strategies, and will greatly enhance the real capacity of SGI and U of S in the new and developing area of engineering known as enforcement engineering. The research will advance knowledge in the fields of crime reduction and traffic safety, and will contribute significantly to improving the health and economic and social well-being of Canadians.