Each year, 1.3 million people are killed and another 50 million are injured in road traffic collisions.1 This issue—particularly problematic in low- and middle-income countries—presents global challenges. A major risk factor contributing to these crashes is elevated speed.2
Automated enforcement, particularly regarding speed control, is an effective way for police and traffic agencies to mitigate the risk of speeding and, in turn, reduce road-related fatalities and injuries. Automated enforcement refers to cameras leveraged for traffic enforcement that do not incorporate handheld radar or other technology to be operated by law enforcement. An example of how automated enforcement can be leveraged to benefit the safety of officers and reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries can be seen in Bogotá, Colombia. Bogotá is one of the 14 cities that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) supports under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) to save lives and improve road safety.3
In an effort to save lives by reducing road traffic crashes, Bloomberg Philanthropies developed a multiyear, multi-partner initiative that identified 30 cities in low- and middle-income countries with elevated levels of traffic-related injury and fatality rates. The city-level initiative advocates for four key interventions, proven effective in reducing road traffic fatalities and injuries: improving data, changing road user behavior, improving safe road design and infrastructure, and implementing safe sustainable urban transport. The initiative focuses on four road safety risk factors: excessive speed, drunk driving, motorcycle helmet use, and seat belt use. Out of these four risk factors, speed remains a priority as it has been proven to be a primary contributing factor to road injuries and deaths.
IACP has been commissioned as an enforcement partner to support the initiative in Bogotá, along with 13 other cities in 6 countries. The IACP works with the city’s traffic enforcement authorities to reduce traffic fatalities by strengthening enforcement operations and community education efforts. In Bogotá, the traffic enforcement efforts are predominantly conducted by the traffic police from the Colombian National Police (CNP), in addition to a body of civil traffic agents. The civil traffic agents receive the same training as traditional police officers in Colombia regarding traffic enforcement; however, they are not armed and do not have arresting power. The civilian traffic agents conduct frequent roadside speed enforcement and DUI checkpoints in the city alongside traffic police from the CNP.
The IACP enlisted Road Safety Support (RSS), a company from the United Kingdom that specializes in enforcement-based road safety solutions, to produce an assessment report on the enforcement capabilities of the civil traffic agents and the traffic police in Bogotá. They support IACP with projects on road safety and law enforcement practice in road policing. A key specialism of RSS is the strategy, deployment, and operation of enforcement technology, which includes addressing legislative, political, and technical issues related to the technology. The RSS used a phased approach to the project. Phase One was a desk review conducted remotely in the UK. This review identified the context and allowed RSS and IACP to design an in-depth Phase Two mission to Bogotá. In Phase Two, RSS was able to identify, define, and explain the blockages to effective enforcement that were inhibited by legal, operational, and technical issues.
During the assessment, RSS noted that there had been barriers to automated enforcement in Bogotá due to recent constitutional challenges to the law, which previously established co-responsibility between the transgressor of the traffic rule and the owner of the vehicle. Until 2017, automatic traffic control violations were regulated by a law established in Article 8 of the Colombian Constitution. 4 The Constitutional Court Ruling No. 038/20 on February 6, 2020, removed the legal principle that allowed the courts to charge both the owner and the driver of a vehicle that committed a traffic offense. 5 The ruling returns the onus to the state to prove the required legal standard that the person driving the vehicle at the time of the offence is solely liable; however, it does not provide any guidance or assistance in the identification of the offending driver. It is widely known in the city that if a driver does not incriminate him- or herself, the individual can evade a citation. In 2021, this led to approximately 45,000 challenges from offenders who used the ruling as a defense to avoid prosecution.6
Law 2161/21—passed in November 2021—establishes measures to endorse compulsory traffic crash insurance.7 Specifically, Article 10 of the law asserts that the owners of motor vehicles shall ensure that the following is maintained for each vehicle in possession:
- compulsory road traffic insurance has been acquired;
- technical-mechanical review has been completed within the deadlines provided by law;
- the vehicle does not exceed the permitted speed limits; and
- the vehicle respects the red traffic light. 8
Those who violate the above obligations will be subject to the sanctions provided in the National Traffic Code for such behavior. The Secretary of Mobility in Bogotá used this ruling to reintroduce automated enforcement in the city and dismiss challenges that offenders put forth under 038/20. Although automated enforcement is now permitted in Bogotá, there remain some challenges regarding enforcement efforts.
In Bogotá, there are different classifications for automated enforcement cameras. Some are classified as Centro de Gestión del Tráfic (CGT) or Traffic Management Center that are used for general traffic violations not related to speed, such as invasion of pedestrian crossings or obstruction of intersections, and others are classified as Camaras Salvavidas or Life Saving Cameras that are specifically used for speed controls and other types of offenses, such as crossing a red light. There are 37 cameras in the CGT system and 93 in the Life Saving Camera system. Out of the 72 life-saving cameras that are in place around the city, 27 are not operational due to vandalism. Both types of cameras have the same evidence processing systems, meaning that once a violation record is received, the information is checked in the Colombian national registry, Registro Unico Nacional de Transito (RUNT).
The location of automatic cameras that detect traffic violations is regulated by Resolution 11245 of the Ministry of Transportation and the National Road Safety Agency (NRSA). 9 According to that resolution, cities that wish to engage in automated enforcement must request authorization from the NRSA under one of following stipulations for the specific area: elevated rate of crashes, elevated rates of ticketing for traffic violations imposed in a certain period, or to implement deterrents.10 In the case of Bogotá, all the cameras are located in areas with high numbers of deaths or injuries due to traffic collisions; however, the cameras do not operate on a 24/7 schedule.
An advantage of automated enforcement highlighted by RSS in their assessment of Bogotá is that the technology can improve the use of manual enforcement capabilities by providing continuous secondary video. The secondary video is beneficial in deterring legal objections to citations by providing another form of evidence against the transgressors in the event they try to evade the citations. Automated enforcement also promotes officers’ physical safety as traffic agents are not on the road and can work remotely to identify offenders. Automated enforcement in addition to manual operations can aid in the reduction of traffic-related crashes and fatalities.
To strengthen overall enforcement efforts, it is best to incorporate both automated and manual enforcement operations. Automated enforcement cameras are a tool used to affect driver behavior and should be used as such to maximize their effectiveness. The use of in-person manual enforcement communications should also be considered in parallel to increase the deterrent effect. Furthermore, agencies should use crash and ticketing data to identify locations best suited for automated enforcement—the areas that are most prone to injuries and fatalities. The use of automated enforcement in addition to manual efforts prevents road crashes and saves lives.
Even though the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) focuses on low- and middle-income areas, the results of the assessment in Bogotá are globally relevant, regardless of a city or country’s income level. Bogotá is just one example of how legislative change can positively impact traffic enforcement capabilities. Police leaders should be able to identify enforcement gaps in the law and then advocate for change in their jurisdiction. Preventing road traffic injuries and fatalities starts at the local level with those who see it firsthand: traffic police. d
