Exploring Different UCR Approaches - Part 1

Unregistered Carriers on 10/20/2009 - 1867
Unregistered Carriers on 10/21/2009 - 1841

As I indicated yesterday, I'm going to do a series of posts on different State approaches to UCR.

Approach #1 - LET’S DO AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE

This approach is more understandable than might be apparent at first blush. It doesn’t mean “Let’s do next to nothing.” It means “Let’s do as little as we have to do so that people can't say that we're not doing anything.”

There are a variety of legitimate reasons why agencies might take this approach.

Maybe the agency is not getting much UCR money.

Some states are NOT getting millions of dollars in UCR revenue. In fact, some states aren’t getting enough revenue from the program to pay for setting up a decent UCR program ... if you figure that a "decent program" includes Registration, Administrative Enforcement and Roadside Enforcement.

Maybe the agency just doesn’t have enough internal resources.

In some cases, revenue isn't the problem, but States just don’t have the headcount to do much – especially in this economy. “I’ve got two people – and, in addition to UCR, those two people also have to accomplish X, Y and Z!”

Maybe the agency doesn’t know much about the UCR program.

In some cases, the program has shifted from one agency to the other. Maybe the first agency knew a lot about UCR, but the second agency has inherited the program without inheriting the people who understood the history or the objectives of the program – but they’re too proud or too whatever to ask for help. Maybe they don't even WANT the program - but got stuck with it anyway.

There are probably more reasons why "Let's do as little as possible" might be the approach of choice for a State, but these three give you an idea of why it may not a totally unreasonable or irresponsible approach.

Would we be better off without states that take this approach? I don't think so. That would just turn them into non-participating states --- which, in my opinion, is even worse. I think we'd be much better off trying to either 1) help them increase their performance or 2) get them to allow somebody else to take over where they leave off. I realize there's no precedent for that yet, but it's probably in everybody's best interest to explore the issue more.

Tomorrow, I'm going to discuss states who take the approach, "We're only going to register carriers until we hit our cap."