The Effect of People's Social Trust in Police Officers on Obeying Traffic Laws

Traffic police need people's support to fulfill their important mission, which is to enforce traffic rules and regulations. One of the factors that make people follow traffic rules lies in social trust in the police. One of the aims of this research is to investigate the social trust of the people towards the police officers in obeying the traffic rules in the city of Tehran. This study is a descriptive-analytical survey. The statistical population of the research was in the south of Greater Tehran in 2022, of which 384 people were selected as a sample by multi-stage cluster sampling method and the designed questionnaire was provided to them. The obtained information was analyzed through structural equations and least square methods using SMART PLS 2 software. The findings showed that the components of social trust in the police, including the police's trustworthiness, the police's ability and efficiency, satisfaction, the dignity of the police, the social police's dignity, good manners and appropriate treatment, and the police's popularity in following traffic laws have a significant effect, and in the meantime, after acceptance, with an effect have a negative Beta (0.483), ability and efficiency (0.215) and social dignity of the police (0.137) respectively have the greatest impact on following traffic rules. The results showed that by using the components of social trust in police officers, it is possible to predict 73% of people who depend on traffic laws. Therefore, the traffic police can increase the compliance with traffic laws by strengthening the social trust components of the people towards the police.