Evidence Based Solutions to Reduce Law Enforcement Officer Vehicular Crashes

This project focuses on the analysis of incident and officer level factors that influence officer-involved vehicle crash rates. This evaluation is accomplished through the analysis of officer-involved vehicle crash reports for more than 600 law enforcement agencies, which includes, though is not limited to, the following; information on officer characteristics, weather conditions, seatbelt usage, roadway characteristics, injuries, nature of police activity, and day-of-the week and time-of-day of the accident. This evaluation is designed to identify those incident-level factors that contribute to injuries and deaths in vehicles crashes. The proposed project consists of a partnership between members of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina and the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (Cal POST). The project will focus on law enforcement agencies in California, but has implications for agencies nationwide. The overall project goal is the development of empirical knowledge on incident and officer level factors that influence officer-involved vehicle crash rates and related deaths and injuries.
ca/ncf