Evaluating the Efficacy of Lighting, Markings, and Paint Schemes in Reducing the Incidence of Law Enforcement Vehicle Crashes

This award was competitively made under the FY2013 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) solicitation titled, Evaluating the Efficacy of Lighting, Markings, and Paint Schemes in Reducing the Incidence of Law Enforcement Vehicle Crashes. Virginia Polytechnic and State University (VPI) is conducting a pilot program, in partnership with six law enforcement agencies in the State of Virginia, to evaluate the impact of alternative vehicle lighting, marking, and painting schemes on law enforcement vehicle traffic safety. The ultimate goal of NIJ's traffic-safety research efforts, of which this is part, is to introduce into practice new tools, policies, and practices that will significantly reduce the number of officers killed or injured on the road each year. Traffic fatalities have been the single largest source of officer line-of-duty fatalities over the past decade. This award was incrementally funded. This completes funding for this award. nca/ncf

This project encompasses a research effort to continue the evaluation of lighting and marking schemes of police vehicles.

This proposal seeks to observe these effects using a matched co-hort of 100 participating officers that will include the outfitting of at least 50 police vehicles with the alternative configurations to be monitored over the course of 18 months. An additional 6 months for preparation, analysis, and reporting will be required for a total of 24 months of research.

Note: This project contains a research and/or development component.

nca/ncf