Policy Text
Policy Delano Police Department
500 Delano PD Policy Manual
Traffic Function and Responsibility
500.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The ultimate goal of traffic law enforcement is to reduce traffic collisions. This may be achieved
through the application of such techniques as geographic/temporal assignment of personnel and
equipment and the establishment of preventive patrols to deal with specific categories of unlawful
driving behavior. Traffic enforcement techniques are based on accident data, enforcement activity
records, traffic volume, and traffic conditions. This department provides enforcement efforts
toward violations, not only in proportion to the frequency of their occurrence in accident situations,
but also in terms of traffic-related needs.
500.2 TRAFFIC OFFICER DEPLOYMENT
Several factors are considered in the development of deployment schedules for officers of the
Delano Police Department. Information provided by the California Statewide Integrated Traffic
Reporting System (SWITRS) is a valuable resource for traffic accident occurrences and therefore
officer deployment. Some of the factors for analysis include:
• Location
• Time
• Day
• Violation factors
All officers assigned to patrol or traffic enforcement functions will emphasize enforcement of
accident causing violations during high accident hours and at locations of occurrence. All
officers will take directed enforcement action on request, and random enforcement action when
appropriate against violators as a matter of routine. All officers shall maintain high visibility while
working general enforcement, especially at high accident locations.
Other factors to be considered for deployment are requests from the public, construction zones
or special events.
500.3 ENFORCEMENT
Enforcement actions are commensurate with applicable laws and take into account the degree
and severity of the violation committed. This department does not establish ticket quotas and
the number of arrests or citations issued by any officer shall not be used as the sole criterion
for evaluating officer overall performance (Vehicle Code § 41603). The visibility and quality of an
officer’s work effort will be commensurate with the philosophy of this policy. Several methods are
effective in the reduction of collisions:
Copyright Lexipol, LLC 2019/12/06, All Rights Reserved. Traffic Function and Responsibility - 1
Published with permission by Delano Police Department