City officials hope to resolve some of the frustration with a new state law that gives the city authority to impound vehicles owned by scofflaws. Others, like Traffic Court Judge Frank Little, are pessimistic. Little said the system won't improve until repeat offenders are jailed. You might also presume the better the compliance, the fewer the accidents. But that is the focus of controversy among traffic law enforcement experts.
Some experts believe there is no relationship between ticket-writing and accidents.
They point to studies showing that even as speeding tickets dropped nationwide in the late-'80s, so too did fatalities. Morrow noted that when Connecticut State Police cracked down on Memorial Day weekend speeders in 1995, for example, accidents actually climbed. Under this program, police are supposed to concentrate their resources in locations with a history of accidents. Philadelphia's selective enforcement program appears to be underused, if not ignored. Every six months, the department's statistical research unit issues a selective enforcement bulletin that lists the top half-dozen traffic hot spots in each district.