The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: community policing and accident investigation

Ed Phillips (edphill@aol.com)
Sat, 13 Sep 1997 17:26:24 -0400 (EDT)

Dan,

This is exactly the attitude that disturbs me, "The quicker accidents can be reported the quicker officers can do another community function." The community loss both financially and emotionally is cumulatively far greater from collisions than any other functions your officers will perform. They may be singularly a community wide trauma (re.: Diana's collision or the fatal collisions every community faces when young people are killed in such events.

Would you ask of a drive-by shooting: "The quicker drive-bys can be reported the quicker officers can do another community function"? Contrast your statistics on youth killed and injured in collisions vs. drive-by shootings and I bet you see my point.

If you want to do your community a real service, train your officers to investigate collisions with the fervor of other injury and fatal producing events. The Administrative view that collisions are a bothersome side-product of the job, and not "real" crimes pervades many police departments. A shotting gets a homicide team, while a triple fatal gets one traffic cop.

The future must bring recognition of the loss to the community traffic events produce and the law enforcement link in the three E's: Engineering, Enforcement, and Education.

Ed
Ed Phillips
edphill@aol.com

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