Front-line police officers' practices, perceptions and attitudes about theenforcement of impaired driving laws in Canada

A survey of front line police officers' practices, perceptions and attitude s regarding detection of impaired driving, processing of driving while impa ired (DWI) charges, criminal court proceedings and DWI sanctions was conduc ted across Canada. A sample of 1545 officers of all jurisdictions across th e country, representative of different types of police services (i.e. natio nal, provincial, municipal) and types of policing (i.e. traffic, general du ty) were surveyed by mail. The results, based on a 71% response rate, indic ate that: an average of 7.5 charges/year are laid by officers resulting mai nly from erratic driving; videotaping and mobile breath testing could impro ve efficiency of DWI enforcement; it takes an average of 2 h 48 min to proc ess each DWI charge; about 2/3 of officers say plea bargaining occurs at le ast sometimes; the average length of DWI trial is over 4 h; less than half of officers think Crown Attorneys are adequately prepared for DWI cases; ab out 3/4 of officers think the accused escapes conviction on a legal technic ality at least sometimes; about 30% of officers say short-term licence susp ensions and other forms of discretion are used at least sometimes; DWI plac es fifth in priority among 15 offences, up from eighth in a 1981 survey; DW I is a priority for most police management but human resources are not adeq uate; and there is greater support for administrative than for Criminal Cod e changes. Multiple regressions indicated that the number of DWI charges la id by officers depended mainly on the officers' personal priority regarding DWI enforcement. The results suggest that many officers want to enforce DW I laws but that the numerous procedural and legal barriers that they confro nt often force them to exercise discretion in the laying of DWI charges. (C ) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.