During the last quarter of 1995 and throughout the past year, the Metropolitan region has been plagued with what the media has called "aggressive drivers." The nature of these drivers can be defined in many ways, but driver inattention, ignoring stop lights/signs, speeding, not wearing safety belts, and driving under the influence are some of the major violations. While the fast pace of the Metropolitan area may have contributed to the development of these drivers over the years, it is the responsibility of law enforcement to work with judicial, educational, and regulatory authorities to encourage behavioral change.

Over the past several years, the Fairfax County Police Department has consistently and successfully applied a number of conventional enforcement approaches to deal with the County's increasing number of aggressive and unsafe drivers. Despite a slight reduction in the County's total crash experience, we have seen an increase in the number of incidents involving the aggressive driver. In addition, recent surveys conducted statewide have revealed a slight reduction in the use of safety belts and an overwhelming increase in the incorrect use of child safety seats.

The Fairfax County Police, in conjunction with many Metropolitan area law enforcement agencies, will be joining forces to conduct a "Smooth Operator" program. This program will target the aggressive and unsafe driver using the tactics of media information and enforcement. This education and enforcement program kicked off at a press conference on April 29, 1997, at Belle Haven Park on George Washington Memorial Parkway, Alexandria, Virginia.

Law enforcement agencies from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will then join together in a coordinated effort to enforce several target violations. This enforcement effort is intended to send a message to the public that aggressive driving will not be tolerated and area law enforcement officers will be targeting these drivers. This effort will take place throughout the region during four waves of highly publicized enforcement activities. Each participating agency will conduct enforcement efforts during these weeks and report the results at the end of each wave. Fairfax County will be the lead agency and collect all of the enforcement data for the region.

A working group of law enforcement officers and public and private agencies have been meeting during the last several months and have determined that the definition of aggressive driving for this program will be:

The combination of unsafe and unlawful driving actions that show a disregard for safety.

The target violations for this campaign are: DWI, Speeding, Following Too Close, Improper Passing, Fail to Obey a Traffic Signal or Sign, Fail to Yield the Right of Way, Reckless Driving, Fail to Use a Safety Belt, and the Failure to Use a Child Safety Seat.