New MPD Accident Reporting System on Tap
It seems that we read a lot of stories like Jonathan Lieber's. Long story short: Mr. Lieber, who was being accosted at gunpoint, attempted to flee through the intersection at 13th and Euclid NW, collided with a car, and — after receiving his stitches — was presented with a $50 ticket for causing the accident. Additionally, the police report erroneously placed fault for his split lip on Lieber himself.
But with some new technology, these types of reporting mishaps might soon be antiquated - or at least quicker and publicly reviewable.
Last Friday, Chief Cathy Lanier announced a new accident reporting tool that would significantly upgrade the somewhat antiquated procedures currently in place. An officer responding to an accident would access an application from his or her laptop, enter information related to the incident (including a diagram of what happened), and submit the report electronically. A pilot of the program was started in April - with an expected total installation sometime in mid-2009, with the hopes that reporting time could be slashed in half.
One very interesting aspect to the program is that residents would be able to access accident reports on-line - in a similar fashion to how District crime data is freely available. While the specifics of the data's availability and format to District residents is still up in the air, we'd like to think that any more clarity and brevity than is available now is a very, very good thing indeed. We've put in a request with MPD for further information, but have yet to receive an official statement from their IT department. As always, we'll keep you posted.