Overview
In France, one could argue that there has been a long and progressive divorce between the police and the road. More precisely, roads in terms of urban public space have, over time, become a domain of police intervention rather than preventative measures to stop traffic violations happening in the first place.
The objective is to look at how tasks concerning the enforcement of road and traffic rules fit within a pre-existing police structure which also undertakes general policing tasks.
This will be done by an international comparison with other systems and police structures which appear to function better in this regard. It is proposed to use this key information source which has been rarely exploited in road safety research.
International comparisons will be made between France, Spain and England, as follows:
- Operation 1:
European partner teams will respond to a questionnaire to collect documentary data on reforms in these three countries, as well as public and official data. - Operation 2:
Three comparable urban policing zones in Spain, England and France will be compared, as well as three rural zones in the same countries. This observational approach will be based on semi-directive interviews and in-situ inspections with police at all hierarchical levels, both specialists and non-specialists in road safety. There will also be semi-directive interviews with other relevant bodies who act in partnership with the police.