‘Fair’ enforcement
There are better and worse ways of enforcing the
law. Some methods will make offenders more likely
to resent us and see us as illegitimate. Others can
actually make people more likely to comply with
our instructions in future because they increase the
idea that we are legitimate and should be obeyed.
Much of this can be explained through the concept of
procedural justice, which is explained in more detail
elsewhere (p60)¹.
The roads policing context is the most likely source
of an encounter between the police and the public
where the member of the public is on the receiving-
end of police attention² (rather than as witness or victim
perhaps) and so is a particularly important opportunity
for engaging the public in ways that will make them into
allies and not enemies.
We should always think about both the short and
long term consequences of enforcement. What if that
encounter between us and dozens of drivers secures
us a high number of prosecutions, but seriously upsets
those drivers to the extent that they are less likely
to obey the law (any law!) in future? We are certainly
not saying that we shouldn’t enforce the law for fear
of upsetting motorists, but we do think it is worth
considering the ways we go about interacting with
drivers to see if we can help make them contribute to
future safe driving whilst we are enforcing the law.
Effective enforcement has to remain part of our
battle against mobile phone use by drivers. But
there are different ways of enforcing the law and
we need to make sure that what we do sends out a
strong message without alienating motorists. This
isn’t about being ‘soft’ on offenders, or scared of
challenging them – it’s about encouraging their
compliance by treating them in ways that they will
consider to be fair.
See page 60 for a detailed explanation of
procedural justice
¹ Tyler, T.R. (1988). What is procedural justice-criteria used by citizens to assess the fairness of legal procedures. Law & Society Review, 22, pp.103-136.
² Corbett, C., 2007. Roads policing: current context and imminent dangers. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 2(1), pp.131-142.
111