The Driving Change team have recently completed a project, funded by The Road Safety Trust, exploring the issue of a potential displacement effect from handheld to handsfree phone use, police officer understanding of the dangers of handsfree phone use, and how this understanding impacts on their interactions with drivers observed using their mobile phone.

The Project

Police officers from across England and Wales were recruited to participate in an online survey which measured their attitude and experiences relating to mobile phone use by drivers. Having completed the survey, officers were asked to complete an evidence-based interactive activity which highlights the dangers of handsfree phone use. They were then surveyed again, to enable a comparison of attitude measures pre- and post- exposure to education.

Key Findings

Findings revealed that prior to education many officers considered that the main issue with phone use is the manual and visual distraction it imposes, and that handsfree phone use is a safe alternative to illegal phone use. Officers felt that discretion is needed when considering prosecution due to feelings of fairness, the type of phone use witnessed and future potential police-public interactions. Finally, officers were in support of greater education for drivers regarding phone use (both at the roadside and elsewhere).

Many officers reported that they routinely offer roadside education to offenders, including a recommendation to use handsfree in future, based on the view that handsfree phone use is safer than handheld use. After experiencing the interactive education, which provides personalised feedback on the user’s own multitasking ability, officer attitudes relating to the safety of handsfree phone use changed significantly. Officers changed their views on the seriousness/danger of handsfree phone use, and phone use while stationary in traffic. They further reported the intention to use their educationin practice, including explaining the dangers of all phone use to offenders in future, recommending avoiding handsfree use and explaining specifically why handsfree phone use is dangerous. Some officers further suggested they would change their own phone use both at work and outside of work following experiencing the education, while others considered their own expertiseand capability made such changes unnecessary.

Next Steps

In light of the effectiveness of education in changing officer attitudes and potential future practice, we hope to encourage wider application ofeducation and specific guidance on officer-offender interactions.

You can watch a video which summarises this work here

and read the full project report here