Law Enforcement

In addition to Registration, the other major component of PRISM is Enforcement. The enforcement program utilizes the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Process (MCSIP) to encourage carriers to improve safety performance. MCSIP is the means by which carrier safety is systematically tracked and improved. MCSIP is a data-driven process that uses current safety event information such as crashes, inspections, driver violations, compliance review data and other data to assess and monitor motor carrier safety performance. Safety events are assigned to the motor carrier responsible for safety of the motor vehicle and are weighted according to severity, frequency and time since the occurrence.
The goal of MCSIP is to improve the level of safety on our nation's highways by helping carriers identify and correct safety problems. There are several mechanisms in place to serve this goal. They include:

• Education/Awareness: Carriers are given information on safety performance. This allows concerned personnel to take steps to improve safety and helps them understand how safety performance can impact a carrier's ability to operate. For example, when carriers are given a warning letter, a copy of their most recent safety evaluation summary is also included.
• Data Quality Improvement: Safety Measurement System (SMS) and MCSIP are data driven processes. Increasing the quality and accuracy of the available data improves the accuracy and effectiveness of these programs. Efforts are made within MCSIP to keep safety and census data current. For example: when vehicles are registered in PRISM States, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) number assignment and census data are verified to assure the accuracy of the data. A focus of the compliance review is to gather, validate and correct safety data. In addition, carriers have the opportunity to update or dispute safety data. Warning letters provide carriers with a data contact person to contact to discuss accuracy of data and request changes.

Additional Law Enforcement Information:

• MCSIP
• Bar Coding Cab Cards
• Target File and Target File Data Access
• Training Material for Law Enforcement