Police Officer Involved Vehicular Fatalities in 2009

• NCJ Number: 233253
• Author(s): National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center
• Date Published: December 2010
• Length: 9 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Operation of the NLECTC - Rocky Mountain FY09 and Support of Weapons and Protective Systems Center of Excellence

Annotation

This study identified the circumstances involved in line-of-duty automobile accidents resulting in law enforcement officer fatalities in 2009.

Abstract

Data are provided on nine variables. Data on officer demographics address gender, age, years of law enforcement experience, rank, and duty assignment. Data are also provided on road and weather conditions at the time of the crash, the make and model of the law enforcement vehicle involved, the type of activity in which the officer was engaged at the time of the accident, and whether the vehicle’s emergency equipment was being used at the time of the accident. Other variables focus on whether seatbelts were being used by the officer at the time the accident occurred, whether the seatbelt failed, whether there were State laws regarding law enforcement officers’ use of seatbelts, and the circumstances of the accident. In making observations about the data, the report notes that no Federal agency maintains a central database with information about line-of-duty deaths of law enforcement officers. Although all requests for data in this study were directed to the Records Custodian of the agency, in later telephone contacts with agencies, it was apparent that there was no standard methodology established for handling such requests for information. In addition, a small number of agencies were reluctant to release the requested information until the study objectives were thoroughly explained; however, for the purposes of this study, only information that was readily available to the general public was requested from each agency. Extensive data figures