Reducing Traffic-Related Officer Fatalities and Injuries Through Technology Enhancements and Policy, United States, 2013-2021

Police officers rely on technology to safely arrive to scenes of emergency response. Although the technology in vehicles is becoming more sophisticated, it also presents a hazard while trying to safely operate a vehicle, often at high speeds. Increased refinement and understanding of the technologies are needed, including how they can be controlled and what is acceptable use for modern-day police officers. The two objectives of this research were 1) to determine ways to improve police officer safety by evaluating technology enhancements that improve information delivery to officers in patrol vehicles and 2) to evaluate agency driving policies for response-to-calls service using crash and arrest data, specifically to investigate if vehicle driving speed influences a call's outcome. These objectives were achieved using parallel research investigations, including a qualitative analysis of how officers perceived and reacted to technology enhancements that were deployed in patrol vehicles. Focus groups and a follow-up survey were conducted so officers could provide feedback on the role of technology and the specific software programs implemented during the study for evaluation. Agency traffic crash data and computer-aided dispatch response-to-call data were also analyzed to determine the impact of response-to-call speed cap policies. This collection contains data representing six police agencies across the United States: response-to-call data (DS1-DS4), vehicle crash data (DS5-DS7), post-intervention officer survey data (DS8), and pre-intervention officer focus group data (DS9). NOTE: Focus group data are not currently available.