Enforcement and Public Information Strategies for DWI Deterrence: The Indianapolis, Indiana Experience
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Summary
This report evaluates a field test conducted in Indianapolis, Indiana, to determine if combining DWI enforcement with public information and education (PI&E) could achieve general deterrence. The study was motivated by the premise that increasing the public’s perceived risk of arrest and punishment for driving while intoxicated would deter the behavior and reduce alcohol-related crashes. The project aimed to identify low-cost, feasible strategies that could be adopted by other jurisdictions. Indianapolis served as the test site, while Cincinnati, Ohio, functioned as a comparison jurisdiction to monitor baseline trends. The experimental design involved a twelve-month active implementation period from May 1984 to April 1985. The Indianapolis Police Department implemented specific enforcement strategies, including high-visibility patrols at high DWI accident and incident locations, the use of DWI roadblocks (checkpoints), and faster processing of arrestees. Officers received training on the NHTSA DWI Detection Guide and an improved battery of field sobriety tests, including horizontal gaze nystagmus. These enforcement efforts were supported by PI&E activities, primarily hard news coverage, designed to heighten public awareness of the specific techniques being used. Evaluation methods included telephone surveys of 400 licensed drivers in both jurisdictions to measure awareness and perceived risk, as well as time-series analysis of police-reported nighttime and alcohol-related crash data. Survey results indicated that the program successfully increased public awareness of DWI enforcement activities in Indianapolis. Respondents reported higher perceived risks of arrest and sanctions for DWI, and there were reductions in self-reported drinking and driving behavior. However, analysis of crash data revealed no statistically significant reductions in police-reported alcohol-related crashes attributable to the program. The authors hypothesize that this lack of detected change may be due to increased sensitivity by police accident investigators in identifying alcohol involvement, rather than an actual absence of effect. Notably, nighttime crashes in Indianapolis did decrease relative to Cincinnati during the active implementation period. The enforcement strategy most frequently cited by survey respondents was the use of checkpoints. The study concludes that while the combined enforcement and PI&E strategy effectively altered public perceptions and self-reported behavior, it did not produce measurable changes in official alcohol-related crash statistics. The authors suggest that hard news coverage, which was the primary PI&E method used, should be supplemented by public service announcements to achieve more sustained program effects. The report emphasizes that command emphasis and commitment within law enforcement agencies are critical for the successful implementation of such deterrence strategies.
Key finding
The enforcement and public information campaign increased public awareness and perceived risk of arrest but did not produce a measurable reduction in police-reported alcohol-related crashes.
Methodology
field_study
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation, policy recommendations