Howard County Police Department Best Practice on Aggressive Driving
Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space reports on one of the presenters at the Bike Maryland Symposium Howard County Chief of Police William McMahon. I will highlight something I would like to see other jurisdictions adopt:
While there is a high standard of evidence required for the police to be able to write a ticket or charge someone with a crime if a police officer did not witness the incident, the Howard County Police Department encourages people to report acts of aggressive driving involving cars, pedestrians, or bicyclists.
They will send a letter to the owner of the vehicle stating that (1) a report was made; (2) concerning the vehicle and a particular illegal act; (3) the consequences from acting in this fashion; and (4) an "apology" if this report was made in error.
They send out over 300 letters each month.