I mean, it's iffy. You the citizen is mostly likely to encounter the police in an adversarial way during a traffic stop - and it's at a interesting intersection of safety from multiple perspectives. Over the past 5 years, something like 400 people were shot by the police during traffic stops. To quote the NYT, "the
chief enforcement mechanism of road safety for decades in America — the traffic stop — has been a recurring scene of police misconduct."
That said, the relative paucity in cop visibility in MA is probably at least partially related to the fact that most departments are still massively understaffed since COVID and the 2020 protests - being a cop isn't exactly seen as being progressive, and basically every municipal department is struggling to hire. A former classmate who is now a statie told me recently that the State Police has an authorized strength of over 3000 sworn officers, but actually only has close to 2300 troopers.
There's also quite a bit of research that shows increased police enforcement of driving laws don't improve road safety on a lasting basis - the memory fades the minute the police are out of sight, out of mind. It's a very reactive system, not a proactive one - You almost certainly have seen this driving on the interstates - traffic behaves so long as there is a visible statie, but the moment they exit, traffic accelerates.
USDOT still funds
enforcement grants, but the new approach seems focused less on making stops, but making it known that it'll be enforced via messaging, but it's probably best as a component of a vision zero based infrastructure solution -
USDOT is apparently referring to it now as SS4A (safe streets 4 all).
Generally, I don't think we need more cops on the road enforcing general traffic laws - most of the dangerous behavior other than DUIs can be targeted via road design and camera deployments. There's several interesting programs around the country where alternate enforcement regimes are being piloted.
Alternative traffic enforcement is an emerging crime and justice issue prompted by efforts of dozens of jurisdictions throughout the United States. In response to documented dangers and disparities, they seek to change how some traffic violations are handled.[1] Specifically, these strategies...
nij.ojp.gov
www.pewresearch.org
