Law Enforcement Stops and Safety Subcommittee(LESSS)

Traffic stops are essential to effective traffic law enforcement and frequently act as the gateway to detecting serious crimes and arresting dangerous criminals; however, they are inherently perilous to police officers. The IACP's Highway Safety Committee (HSC) and a number of police agencies continue to recognize this dilemma and--in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)--are seeking, via the March 2003, establishment of its Law Enforcement Stops and Safety (LESS) subcommittee, to improve the environment in which officers operate. LESS is attempting both to solidify past efforts, especially those significant ones of the Arizona CVPI Blue Ribbon Panel, and to explore better ways to ensure to a greater extent officer safety during traffic stops and other roadside contacts. This may be the single most important endeavor in terms of the safety of today's police officers, and the formation of this subcommittee brings together under one umbrella past labors in this realm.

View the Arizona Highway Patrol's Presentation on Vehicle Safety.

View the LESS Staff Study 2004:
Staff Study 2004 (Screen Quality) or (Print Quality).

View the Police Chief Magazine article Solutions for Safer Traffic Stops.

LESS has established three levels of membership:

1. The Core Group comprised primarily of representatives from those states in which officers have died as the result of high-speed, high energy rear-end collisions during traffic stops and other roadside contacts.
2. The Advisory Group composed of HSC members who will supplement Core Group members.
3. The Associate Group to include representatives of numerous other organizations who share LESS's objective.

LESS subcommittee members:

1.   Are exploring and examining the causes, circumstances, commonalities, and preventability of those high-speed, high energy rear-end collisions resulting in the death and injury of officers during traffic stops and other roadside contacts.

2.   Are developing and will recommend appropriate mitigation strategies relative to those issues studied by the three primary working groups.

3.   Will create—and will market to law enforcement executives—best practices/procedures for conducting professional and safe traffic stops and other roadside contacts.

LESS intends to approach its goal using three primary working groups, each of which will be linked to the others via the application of technological advancements:

•     Vehicle: study the design, manufacture, and use of police vehicles, including fleet composition, crash data collection and evaluation, effectiveness of bladders and on-board fire suppressant systems, installation of aftermarket equipment, conspicuity (lighting and markings), and whether or not there is a need for Federal standards relating to public safety vehicles.

•     Policy and Procedure: ensure the manner of conducting professional and safe traffic stops and other roadside contacts becomes a nationally-recognized officer safety issue; research, develop, and evaluate technology which limits police officer exposure, as well as the time expended, on traffic stops and other roadside contacts; and identify risk management practices to evaluate or to limit that exposure.

•     Highway Environment/Design: identify the data elements required to determine the magnitude of the problem, e.g., congestion, shoulder sufficiency, traffic, and weather; and analyze those data to ascertain appropriate engineering countermeasures, making recommendations to American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) appropriate countermeasures.

LESS wants and needs input from all concerned with the issues it is attacking and strongly encourages the use of less@iacplist.org to exchange experiences or ideas, to provide feedback and suggestions, or to request more information. LESS is not the solution to this problem; it is the catalyst to bring together all of the stakeholders to ensure to a greater extent officer safety during traffic stops and other roadside contacts, which are the bread-and-butter of good police work. Do your part!

For more information, contact Richard Ashton, staff liason, 800-THE-IACP Ext. 276.