GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you find yourself in a minor traffic accident in Greensboro, you could soon start seeing civilians show up to help.
Governor Roy Cooper signed the bill into law that would allow police departments to form Civilian Crash Investigation Teams.
WFMY News 2 spoke with Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson who says he is already in the process of hiring five people to form a team.
15,000 crashes a year is how many calls Greensboro Police Department (GPD) officers were having to respond to a couple of years ago. "That equates to anywhere from 20 to 25,000 man-hours," Thompson said. So, the department was determined to find a better alternative.
"We actually found that Wilmington and Fayetteville a number of years ago had local legislation passed that allow them to have civilian crash investigators," Thompson said.
After hearing about the successes, GPD wanted to bring the idea here.
"Their focus was going to be on traffic hazard calls, vehicle disabled in the roadway, debris in the roadway, traffic signal out," Thompson said.
With a newly signed law in the state legislature, each department is now able to create civilian crash investigation teams, which include four to five more weeks of training.
"They will only be able to respond to property crashes, so if there's a crash that is called in with any kind of injury, they will not be dispatched to the crash," Thompson said.
In January the Burlington police department saw a similar need for civilians. So, they started a motorist assistance program.
"Typically, we would send two officers to a traffic incident and so now we are able to send one officer and a BMAT volunteer and that volunteer can help with traffic direction lock-out kit and things like that," Public Information Officer Emily-Lynn Adkins said.
It helps free up the second officer. I spoke with two of the volunteers, who say it's been a great addition.
"We'll unlock their car show them how to get gas for their car, provide gas for their car if they run out," David Pinson said.
"We've had a lot of fun with it and I think the people we have had a chance to serve appreciate it. They are surprised that it's a volunteer situation rather than being employees," Barry Bradberry said.
Greensboro Chief looks forward to getting his civilian crash investigators up and running to help continue to serve the community.
The Greensboro Chief hopes the team will begin responding to calls next month.
High Point police want to start a similar team if approved by city council.
A representative for the department sent us this statement:
If the High Point City Council authorizes the hiring of civilian traffic investigators, the High Point Police Department will pursue hiring these investigators to respond to motor vehicle collisions which involve only property damage. Vacancies are impacting law enforcement agencies around the country, including ours, but we remain committed to providing the best service to our community. At times, that means taking a different approach to respond to routine calls for service. The civilian traffic investigators would provide relief to our patrol teams and give us a better opportunity to provide a quicker response time to the citizens we serve. So far this year, our officers are responding to an average of more than 70 traffic crashes each week. These calls often tie up officers for hours, limiting the number of officers available to respond to higher-priority calls. We want to maximize our police services to ensure all High Point residents can receive assistance when they need it. While this will take time to implement, we believe it will help us continue our mission to make High Point a safe city by developing leaders and employees in crimefighting, community engagement, training and professional policing.