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TACT Methodology Manual
A National Model for the Evaluation of CMV Selective Enforcement Programs
This document (henceforth referenced as the Methodology Manual) is intended to provide a quick reference to the more detailed examples for this project entitled “A National Model for the Evaluation of CMV Selective Enforcement Programs – Supplemental Report.” That report, which will henceforth be referenced as the Supplemental Report, contains extensive details and examples to define the procedures recommended in evaluating Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) selective enforcement programs, and in particular, the Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) program.
For brevity and convenience in this manual, the acronym “TACT” will be used to apply to all selective enforcement programs involving CMVs even though they might not be designated (funded) as formal TACT programs. The intended audiences for this Methodology Manual are law enforcement supervisors and their support staffs (including consultant services) who share the duty of improving programs involving CMVs through the use of data and analytical methods applied to problem identification and evaluation. Also, it must be emphasized that the findings of the recommended evaluations should lead to improvements throughout law enforcement selective enforcement and PI& E operations, and not just TACT programs, or for that matter, those involving CMVs. So, unless otherwise seen from the context, the acronym TACT is used in a very broad sense throughout this document and the Supplemental Report to refer to all similar programs involving CMVs.
TACT programs are primarily interested in reducing the conflicts between CMVs and other vehicle types. In this report, the word “cars” is used to collectively represent all of these “other vehicle types.” This is done for brevity recognizing that there are many non-CMV vehicle types that would qualify, including sedans, vans, mini-vans, etc. A crash between a CMV and a car (or a car and a CMV) is referred to as a CMV-car crash. In using this term (CMV-car), there is no implication as to which of the two vehicles (or their drivers) caused the crash. The term CMVcar is used throughout this document for consistency, but it is indistinguishable from car-CMV; the two should be considered interchangeable in the context of this manual. When fault is to be attributed to one of the drivers, it will be stated explicitly.
The purpose of this document is slightly different from that of the overall project, which was to develop the methodology for TACT evaluations and document it as comprehensively as possible. The primary goal of this document is to provide an easy point of reference to that project Supplemental Report. One of the primary objectives in creating the Methodology Manual was to briefly outline the methodology for practitioners interested in performing evaluations apart from the detailed examples. All users do not need all of the information in the Supplemental Report. Some are already quite knowledgeable on many of the aspects of problem identification and evaluation techniques. Thus, this document is an abridgment of the Supplemental Report intended to serve primarily as a checklist, and secondarily as a reference back to the Supplemental Report when more information is needed.