Research into how public perception impacts police and local authorities, in relation to making decisions, policies, strategies and staff morale towards road collision reduction and prevention.
| Lead institution | |
|---|---|
| Principal researcher(s) |
Jennifer Gale
|
| Police region |
West Midlands
|
| Level of research |
PhD
|
| Project start date |
|
| Date due for completion |
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Research context
The aim of the research is to investigate how public perception and community concerns influence local authorities and police forces in addressing road traffic collision reduction in England and Wales, with the goal of understanding how this impacts local road safety processes and policy implementation.
Objectives
- To critically analyse how the role of public perception and community concern influences both local authority and police decision-making processes, in the context of road traffic collision prevention and reduction in England and Wales.
- To evaluate the mechanisms and effectiveness of existing community engagement frameworks employed by local authorities and police forces, with a focus on their capacity to translate citizen concerns into actionable road safety strategies, policies and processes.
- To explore the impact of public road safety perception on local authority and police employees in delivering such strategies, policies, processes and decision making.
Research methodology
The methodology includes both qualitative and quantitative data via a literature review, interviews, surveys (public, police and local authorities) and whether policies, procedures and strategies are useful or form a barrier to road safety concerns. Budgets and public road safety enquiry reports will also be used since these are generally reported and are reports that the organisation can action.
Relatable initiatives such as Community Speedwatch, police operations and local authorities educational programmes will be examined to establish their attributes and limitations in supporting public concerns around road safety functions. These will include a variety of road safety topics such as speeding, parking restrictions, enforcement, cycle and pedestrian safety and incident response. How the public can report such concerns and their responses from industry-led professionals will also be considered to establish whether a disconnect and bias is evident in relation to perception. These can be gathered and analysed via data from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, surveys and/or interviews.
The literature review will also draw upon theoretical frameworks, academic papers, and cover psychology, criminology and leadership, along with international, national and local strategies and initiatives. National strategies such as Vision Zero, The Fatal Four and the Safe System approach will be analysed, along with theories such as responsibilisation theory (Garland, 1996), Harvey’s 3 E’s (Groeger, 2011), deterrence theory, risk compensation/adaption theory, broken windows theory (Kelling and Wilson, 1982) and social capital theory. These topics provide a conceptual lens across multiple areas which potentially impact public and processional perception towards the questions and issues addressed by the study.
References
Garland D. (1996). The limits of the sovereign state: Strategies of crime control in contemporary society.. British Journal of Criminology, volume 36, issue 4, pages 445–471.
Groeger J. (2011). 'How many E’s in road safety?' In Porter BE. 'Handbook of Traffic Psychology'. Academic Press, pages 3–12.
Wells H and Millings M. (2018). Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, responsivity and responsibilisation. Policing and Society, volume 29, issue 4, pages 376–391.