The initiative, dubbed Smooth Operator, includes four-week waves of heightened enforcement during the spring and summer by 25 police agencies in Maryland, Virginia and the District. Officers, including some deployed on overtime and extended shifts, will target infractions such as reckless driving, unsafe lane-changing, tailgating, running red lights and stop signs, improper passing and speeding. Pete Piringer, spokesman for the Maryland state police, said the greater visibility of troopers should encourage drivers to calm their highway antics.
People improve their driving when they see a police car.
He added, however, that he could not point to any evidence that the previous Smooth Operator campaigns have reduced aggressive driving once the crackdown ended. Indeed, studies by traffic experts in the United States and Europe have concluded that temporary periods of heightened enforcement against speeding and most other dangerous driving tend to have little sustained effect once the initiative ends. The most successful efforts involve larger numbers of police officers working over a longer duration than most agencies can afford. Richard A. Retting, senior transportation engineer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, was skeptical that the crackdown starting today would prove effective. It's probably not enough to produce a measurable effect.