More Cops More Stops: Evaluation of a Combined Enforcement Program in Oklahoma and Tennessee

Nichols, James L.; Chaffe, Robert H. B.; Solomon, Mark G. · 2016 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This report evaluates the "More Cops More Stops" (MCMS) high-visibility enforcement program, which aimed to address impaired driving, seat belt non-use, and speeding simultaneously through a unified messaging strategy. Implemented in Oklahoma and Tennessee from November 2011 to August 2013, the program sought to determine if a combined enforcement approach could enhance the impact of existing single-issue campaigns, specifically "Click It or Ticket" (CIOT) and "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" (DSOGPO). The study utilized a controlled pre-post design, comparing five designated market areas (DMAs) exposed to MCMS activities against control areas in Lawton, Oklahoma, and Knoxville, Tennessee, which were exposed only to statewide campaigns. The evaluation employed a mixed-methods approach to assess both process and outcomes. Process data included reported enforcement actions and paid media expenditures. Outcome measures consisted of Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) surveys to gauge public awareness and perceived risk, observational surveys of seat belt usage, and roadside breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) surveys. DMV surveys targeted residents in both program and control areas. Seat belt observations were conducted at day and night across multiple sites in all DMAs. BrAC surveys, limited to Nashville and Memphis due to cost constraints, involved voluntary testing of drivers exiting police checkpoints. Statistical analyses included Chi-square tests for significance and Pearson’s correlations to examine relationships between enforcement activities and behavioral outcomes. The findings indicated that while MCMS activity increased recognition of the MCMS slogan, it did not significantly increase the perceived risk of traffic stops or enhance awareness of specific enforcement types beyond the effects of statewide campaigns. Regarding behavioral outcomes, there was little evidence that MCMS phases provided additional benefits to seat belt usage above and beyond the statewide CIOT and DSOGPO campaigns; significant increases in seat belt use were observed in control areas as well. The strongest evidence of program impact was found in Memphis, Tennessee, where the combined program correlated with significant increases in daytime and nighttime seat belt usage and a statistically significant decline in the percentage of drivers with positive BrACs. This impact in Tennessee was strongly associated with a substantial increase in checkpoint operations during the second year of the program. The study concludes that the MCMS program was not an effective tool for enhancing the impact of ongoing single-issue statewide campaigns. The authors suggest that the MCMS message was too broad and vague to significantly influence specific driver behaviors. Furthermore, the results support prior research indicating that tackling multiple traffic safety issues with a single program is impractical and difficult to sustain. The evaluation highlights that targeted enforcement strategies, such as checkpoints, were more effective in reducing impaired driving and increasing seat belt compliance than the generalized MCMS messaging approach.

Key finding

The MCMS combined enforcement program did not provide additional increases in seat belt usage or specific enforcement awareness beyond those achieved by existing statewide single-issue campaigns.

Methodology

field_study

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• seat belt use
• dui enforcement
• public messaging
• regulatory evaluation
• automated enforcement cameras

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation, policy recommendations
• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence