EMERGENCIES

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STT/STJ

Police Traffic Services

What is the Police Traffic Services Program?
What is the Police Traffic Services Program?

The Police Traffic Services (PTS) program is developed and implemented based on a comprehensive evaluation of highway safety issues and data trends within the U.S. Virgin Islands, targeting key areas such as impaired and distracted driving, occupant protection, speed enforcement, pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and motorcycle safety. By analyzing data, trends, population demographics, and identifying high-risk areas for crashes, injuries, and fatalities, the PTS program is both data-driven and problem-focused. It is continuously managed and monitored to ensure effectiveness. The primary objective of PTS is to enhance highway safety through compliance, education, and awareness, while reducing fatalities, injuries, crashes, and traffic violations in high-risk areas. This is achieved through data-driven, high-visibility enforcement in alignment with the Highway Safety Plan.

What is a Law Enforcement Liaison (LEL)?
What is a Law Enforcement Liaison (LEL)?

The Law Enforcement Liaison (LEL), responsible for overseeing and coordinating the Police Traffic Services Program, serves as a bridge between the Virgin Islands Office of Highway Safety (VIOHS), the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), and the broader law enforcement community. The LEL’s primary role is to ensure that traffic safety programs are effectively implemented and supported by law enforcement agencies, contributing to the overall goal of reducing traffic-related injuries, fatalities, and violations. The role also includes promoting and advancing both local and national highway safety initiatives and campaigns.

Enforcement
Enforcement

Enforcement of laws and regulations within the territory is the purview of the VIPD. The VIPD is committed to ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of all residents and visitors within the territory. As a proactive and fully prepared organization, VIPD strives to create a safe and secure environment by delivering exceptional and responsive law enforcement services. In partnership with the VIOHS. VIPD serves as the primary enforcement authority, working diligently to uphold laws and promote road safety.

The department operates with dedication to its core values: Professionalism, ensuring that officers maintain high standards of conduct and expertise; Accountability, holding themselves responsible for their actions and decisions; Communication, fostering open and transparent dialogue with the community; Respect, treating every individual with dignity and fairness; and Integrity, committing to honesty and ethical behavior in all situations.

These guiding principles not only shape the VIPD’s internal culture, but also define its mission to safeguard public safety while strengthening trust and cooperation with the community.

High Visibility Enforcement
High Visibility Enforcement

High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) is a comprehensive traffic safety strategy aimed at deterring and reducing unlawful driving behaviors. It combines proactive, highly visible law enforcement efforts that target specific traffic safety issues. These efforts are reinforced with public visibility campaigns and educational outreach to encourage voluntary compliance with traffic laws.

Checkpoints, saturation patrols, and other HVE strategies should be paired with increased public warnings and visibility. Although alerting the public beforehand may seem counterintuitive to apprehending violators, it enhances the overall deterrent effect, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The primary focus of HVE is to improve road safety by reducing unsafe practices such as speeding, failure to wear seatbelts, distracted driving, and impaired driving. Additionally, it addresses occupant protection, pedestrian, and bicycle safety. Sustained enforcement efforts, including speed checks, random patrols, and planned traffic enforcement operations, are key to reducing traffic violations and fatalities across the territory.

What is Sustained Enforcement?
What is Sustained Enforcement?

Sustained enforcement is a traffic safety strategy that involves the continuous and consistent application of law enforcement efforts to deter and reduce traffic violations over an extended period. Unlike short-term enforcement campaigns, sustained enforcement focuses on maintaining a visible police presence and regularly enforcing traffic laws to promote long-term compliance. This approach aims to create lasting behavioral changes among motorists, reducing unsafe practices such as speeding, impaired driving, distracted driving, and failure to use seatbelts, thereby improving overall road safety and decreasing crashes and fatalities.

What is Speed Enforcement?
What is Speed Enforcement?

Speed enforcement is a traffic safety strategy used by law enforcement to monitor and control vehicle speeds to ensure compliance with posted speed limits. The primary goal of speed enforcement is to reduce speeding, which is a significant contributor to traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities. By consistently enforcing speed limits, law enforcement aims to increase driver awareness, reduce aggressive driving behaviors, and improve overall road safety.

What are Planned Enforcement Initiatives?
What are Planned Enforcement Initiatives?

Planned enforcement initiatives are organized, targeted operations conducted by law enforcement agencies to address specific traffic safety issues or violations over a designated period. These initiatives are often data-driven, focusing on high-risk areas or behaviors that contribute to crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Planned enforcement initiatives typically involve increased patrols, checkpoints, and other strategies designed to deter dangerous driving behaviors and improve overall road safety. These initiatives are usually part of broader public safety campaigns and are often publicized to increase awareness and encourage voluntary compliance with traffic laws.

Statistical Data
Statistical Data

For the Fiscal Year 2024, October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, the Territory reported a total of 5,010 motor vehicle crashes or collisions. Over a five-year period, from 2019 to 2023, there was been a notable increase in the overall number of crashes, rising by 6.5%. This increase highlights the ongoing need for enhanced traffic safety measures and enforcement to address the rising trend in motor vehicle collisions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, in FY2024, the territory recorded its first decrease in crashes of 1.46%.

Resources

DDACTS

Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) is a law enforcement operational model that integrates traffic enforcement with crime prevention strategies, using data analysis to identify areas with high rates of both traffic incidents and criminal activity. The goal of DDACTS is to reduce crime and crashes simultaneously by focusing law enforcement efforts on these identified “hot spots.” By focusing resources in areas where crime and traffic issues converge, DDACTS aims to enhance overall community safety and reduce both traffic-related incidents and criminal activity.