@article{ref1,
title="Caught in Their Own Speed Trap: The Intersection of Speed Enforcement Policy, Police Legitimacy, and Decision Acceptance",
journal="Police quarterly",
year="2011",
author="Ward, Jeffrey T. and Nobles, Matt R. and Lanza-Kaduce, Lonn and Levett, Lora M. and Tillyer, Rob",
volume="14",
number="3",
pages="251-276",
abstract="Empirical work examining the effects of police legitimacy has primarily focused on traffic stop procedures with less attention given to traffic enforcement policies. The current study takes advantage of a natural experiment in which a rural town with a strict speed enforcement policy was labeled a &quot;speed trap&quot; through the introduction of a billboard advertisement funded by the American Automobile Association. Drawing on theories of police legitimacy, we hypothesize the label will result in an abrupt-permanent increase in speeding citation contestation rates, despite the fact that the billboard actually increases predictability of citation issuance. Results of an interrupted time-series analysis indicate statistically significant abrupt-permanent increases in the speeding citation contestation rates for the intervention city. Further analyses reveal that significant intervention effects are confined to drivers with higher opportunity to contest tickets (in-state drivers) and to majority subgroups (Whites and men). The implications of these findings for policy and police-citizen relationships are discussed.<p />",
language="",
issn="1098-6111",
doi="10.1177/1098611111413992",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1098611111413992"
}