Throughout the tour of duty, a Law
Enforcement Officer can and most likely will run into a wide variety of calls
for service. One of the most common calls for service that Law Enforcement
Officers respond to are traffic incidents, that means traffic accidents,
traffic complaints, and traffic hazards. Majority of the time these type of
calls for service don’t require too much involvement to resolve, however LEOs
have to be present nonetheless to make sure any situation is resolved.
There are two
types of traffic accidents when it comes to Law enforcement, Reportable and
Non-Reportable. The Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor
Vehicles have mandated specific situations where a formal report of a traffic
accident is required. A report is required under the following situations when
working a traffic accident; all Hit & Run accidents, if the property damage
to the vehicles involved exceeds a certain amount ($1500), if injury occurs to
anyone involved with the accident, if property damage to any property belonging
to the Department of Transportation occurs, and if the subjects involved
request that a report be generated. Even if the accident doesn’t meet the
reporting requirement if a citizen involved in the accident request a report be
generated it should be done and noted why it is being generated.
Non-Reportable
traffic accidents are a lot simpler, a report is not required under the
following circumstances; if the accident occurred on private property, if the
damage present on both vehicles don’t meet the $1500 minimum requirement, if
only one vehicle is present at the scene. Non-Reportable traffic accident
normally are handled with LEOs present on scene to make sure all parties
involved are provided with insurance information pertaining to filing their
claims with insurance.
Moving on,
traffic complaints can range widely, but majority of the calls for service that
come out for this can be surrounding a specific problem that is on-going
concerning traffic. This can be someone reporting that cars are speeding
through their neighborhood, that people in the community aren’t parking on the
streets facing the correct direction, or a vehicle that is blocking someone
from leaving their residences. It can vary widely, but these calls don’t
normally require a formal report, just notes attached to the call stating what
the resolution was concerning the incident.
Traffic hazards
are normally reported by citizens that observe things that aren’t right while
they are driving concerning the road. This is restricted to hazards or aspects
that may lead the citizens to believe that if left alone will cause an accident
or get someone hurt. A lot of traffic hazards are things dropped in the roadway
by vehicles in transport, or animals observed in the roadway. it is simply
remedied by removing whatever is in the roadway and making sure all lanes of
travel are free to travel without incident.
This is a quick
overview of several traffic incidents LEOs respond to on the daily basis,
obviously each state and agencies have their way of doing things, but this can
serve a general overview how things get taken care of on the roadway.
Responding to Traffic
Incidents…