Barriers to Enforcing Laws and Support for Restricting Cell Phone Use While Driving among Law Enforcement Officers

Abstract

Cell phone use while driving (CUWD) is an underreported contributor to crashes in the U.S.A. Although research indicates that the public is at least somewhat aware of its risks, law enforcement officers’ beliefs have been understudied. Officers’ attitudes are important for the following reasons: they influence citation rates; enforcement of the law is necessary to change driver behavior; and officers have experience and knowledge with respect to CUWD that the public may not. Ohio law enforcement officers (N = 1,549) were recruited via convenience samples from multiple agencies in May 2019. We were primarily interested in officers’ support for legislative strategies and their perceptions of barriers to enforcing the law. We also assessed how they prioritized the enforcement of laws restricting CUWD relative to common automobile offenses, the level of risk they assigned to CUWD, and their estimation of CUWD frequency among Ohio drivers. We found that officers supported stronger enforcement of laws restricting CUWD (i.e., preferring primary to secondary enforcement) and viewed CUWD as risky and prevalent. Officers frequently cited secondary enforcement as an obstacle to enforcing laws restricting CUWD. Officers were less supportive of secondary enforcement in relation to CUWD because it is a less-effective version of regulation; their support for secondary enforcement was even lower if they supported primary enforcement. Drivers and policymakers may need to be educated about the problems secondary enforcement poses for law enforcement and be made aware that officers support stronger enforcement, including primary methods.