Obtaining Police Reports

As part of my project to monitor the most serious bicycle – vehicle collisions, I will be obtaining the Arizona Crash Report(ACR) for every bicyclist fatality in 2009.

See Manner and Fault in Bicyclist Traffic Fatalities: Arizona 2009

In other rantings, Arizona Crash Reports are still, erroneously, often referred to as Arizona Traffic Accident Reports (thus the acronym TAR). In any event these reports are key to ALISS and accurate statistical reporting.

Most cyclists have a keen interest in establishing fault in collisions; some thinking that the cyclist-victim is rarely at fault, others having exactly the opposite view. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

What I really want to see is that collisions be investigated and reported thoroughly and that any appropriate charges or citations be brought against any negligent driver. (by either convention, practicality, or law: deceased people are not cited, regardless of fault)

Some cyclists have a belief there is a systemic bias against cyclists. I believe that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” and that transparency is key. To that end the only way is to look at each incident and make it available to any interested parties for scrutiny. As we shall see, the overall “quality” of reports varies dramatically; to the extent that certain law enforcement agencies routinely turn out poor quality reports one could make the case that that agency may have a bias, or is simply inept or in need of better procedures.

Reports are public records, and i would be happy to share them with anyone provided it is on a non-commercial basis (see below for Arizona Public records laws) — contact me for info.

Scanning

Best result was to scan 300dpi b/w document (1 bit) to tif file using my old (u1220) scanner. Each page image is about 1MB. Then used Acrobat pro 9 to assemble into a single pdf file; then run OCR with settings to make the smallest file. The ocr also straightens (and sometimes messes up graphics pages). The end result is around 2MByte for a 50 page report.

Obtaining

Crash reports are public records, and anyone is entitled to view and/or obtain copies of public records pursuant to §39-121, 121.01, 121.02 and 121.03). For non-commercial purposes (as here, traffic safety research), rates for copies vary by jurisdiction, as little as $5 per report. Many charge $0.25/page,  and postage. Reports tend to be about 50 pages. Un-involved persons are specifically prohibited from requesting or viewing crash reports, but only if their purpose is to solicit business, see  §28-667. This same statute stipulates that “involved parties” (people involved in the collision, their insurance carriers, their legal counsel, etc) are entitled to receive unredacted copies of reports — it most certainly does not prohibit distribution to uninvolved, non-commercial, parties (like, say for example, for researchers).

Victims (or the family) of certain crimes are entitled to one free copy of the completed report (§39-127).

Although many jurisdictions have online availability, as a general rule, reports involving fatalities are not available online. Usually a phone call to the jurisdiction is required; commonly, the records department person can look up the case  number, and number of pages for any given report.

Requests can then be sent (usually mailed, along with a fee) to the jurisdiction.

Cost of records

Our friends at the Arizona Republic continue to do important work on the public records front:

It can cost anywhere from 10 cents to $1 a page to copy a public record at Valley cities, police departments and other agencies.

The total cost is small when someone wants only a handful of copies. But if hundreds of pages are requested – and many agency reports can run that length – the cost can easily climb into hundreds of dollars.

Increasingly, Republic reporters are using portable scanners to copy large sets of public documents. The scanners load the images into a laptop computer.

Initially, journalists ran into resistance.

Last year, Arizona State University told a reporter she would have to pay 20 cents per page for using the newspaper’s scanner to copy a few hundred documents. She maintained that there should be no charge because using the scanner was equivalent to inspection of the public records and the university would incur no appreciable costs.

The state Public Records Law provides that “public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to inspection by any person at all times during office hours.”

Days later, ASU reversed its position and allowed copies to be scanned for free by the reporter.

Months later, Maricopa County also permitted a Republic reporter to spend two days making hundreds of copies without charge.

As technological advances continue to miniaturize copying and photographic devices, journalists and members of the public will find it easier to obtain copies of records at little or no cost.

City of Chandler

As of mid-2019 has some sort of open data initiative that might be useful. Otherwise they go thru one of the standard commercial suppliers ($5/each, i think)

• Chandler PD open data initiative
• Crash reports redirects to buycrash.com (which is now lexisNexis Risk), unlikely to be useful; must know both date and “report number” which doesn’t seem to correlate with FileNumber so would have to call PD records anyway. Bottom line, if report is really needed, get a full police report anyway (currently $5 plus 0.15/page after 35 pages)

City of Phoenix

As of mid-2019, the info lined-through below is outdated. City of Phx now has a very cumbersome, and $5 each, way to obtain crash reports. So no more accolades for City of Phoenix.

• City of Phx records portal (requires login). The whole system is cumbersome, must provide info and then pay and then find out later if there’s a problem. Crash reports and “incident” reports are both $5 each so it’s not worth it to buy the crash report (if there’s a more-full report as would be the case for serious crashes). ugh.
  So, I ordered a report in May 2023 on this fatality, we’ll see how that works out (4 to 6 month delay?!)The old system (before ~ 2019) provided instant access, for free, to crash reports(!)

The city of Phoenix is, as of this writing, hand-down, the most progressive city in Arizona for making traffic reports available inexpensively (free!) and timely (instantly, online). You must know or obtain the incident number and a last name of any of the involved parties. vist: (which is or was same as phoenix.gov , which redirects here… and for completeness, the old link was in the  ci.phoenix.az.us) 602-534-1127. They are located just west of the airport.

Incident numbers since 2010(?) are 11 digit numbers, the first two are year (like 10 for 2010) followed by two zeros followed by a 7 digit number. (The old incident number is a nine-digit number, that looks like it begins with a two-digit year; followed by 7 digits.)When searching i had some difficulties with the last name being lower case; sometimes it worked but other times not, all upper-case seems to always work. Phoenix incident numbers, when known, are in the fatality grid.

The full Arizona Crash Report is then instantly downloadable. Copies of the “DR” (Departmental Report?), which would be only for more serious crashes, are available at 15 cents/page. Most things can be dealt with through fax or even email(!), i forgot to ask what forms of payment are acceptable.

Congratulations to the City of Phoenix, they are a model of efficiency and transparency in government.

I do have some minor gripes: their site insists on referring to “accident” reports; this is now (since at least 1/1/2009) officially incorrect. The term is “crash”, as in Arizona Crash Report.  See NHTSA campaign “Crashes are not Accidents“.

City of Tempe

I’ve not gotten any from them, but it looks like a relatively hard pull Tempe Police Records — “written” requests (no fax, no email) only, it’s not clear if checks are an acceptable form of payment (the form says “verifiable check”; what is a verifiable check? There doesn’t appear to be any online access.  The stated cost is $5 for up to 20 pages, and 25 cents per page over. It’s not clear if there is a fee for mailing.
However this worked out for several reports that were quickly delivered via email for a cost of $5; e.g. the Hardy Bus incident. I submitted the form in person at the Hardy sub-station, i can’t remember how i paid?
Their phone operators are very helpful 480-350-8598

Their generic crash reports are sold thru BuyCrash. and can be searched either by report number (which doesn’t appear to be ADOT’s filenumber?), or Last name / street. This lookup worked well if you know either of that. The cost stated as of 2023 was $14, saying that if the billing info reflects a matching last name, it might be cheaper. In other words, it’s probably cheaper to buy a police dept report (if it exists), as they have historically included the crash report.

City of Mesa

Overall experience was very good. Reports are inexpensive; I obtained two long (~50 pages each) for $5 each, and there was not a charge for mailing, though i did have to call to request they be mailed rather than picked up. Total turn time was under two weeks.

Visit the Mesa police records webpage (or here is a template ).

City of Tucson

This was very unusual. They take requests by email, promptly replied with a quote on number of pages and price (e.g. 50 pages at .25/page plus $5 postage). The will then print and mail the report along with an invoice so you can pay later.

Visit the Tucson Police Records webpage. (scroll down for email).

Pima County

This one is very difficult. You have to wonder if they are going out of their way to make it that way. As usual, fatal reports are not available online. So I called to get case number and number of pages. The person would not give me any information; I was told to send $5 (money order only) and the name/date/location of the incident. They would then find out how much it would cost, presumably more than $5, and they would somehow get back with me and I would then have to mail (another) money order for the balance, and then they would sent me the report. Phew.

Visit the Pima County Sheriff’s Record Maintenance Unit webpage.

Others

There may be others, but buycrash.com “lexisnexisrisk” and crashdocs.org “powered by CarFax” seem to be the big knockers.

Much of this is now dated, for example both sites mentioned below are defunct as of May 2023

There are many jurisdictions using commercial services, some even seem to be using more than one, here are a couple, they tend to charge from $5 to 10 dollars per report:

• reportsonline.docview.us  Requires a report number and date.
• policereports.us Much broader search terms.

For example Chandler is in both(?), the former is a very strict search, the latter is very very broad allowing for all sorts of searching, even by street. It should be noted that generally only the ACR (crash form itself) is available, and not a fill DR (Departmental report; typically only done for very serious collisions).

Tricks

Some search fields take %% (two percent signs) as a wild-card; potentially useful if some info is missing or incomplete.

Driver License Records

This doesn’t exact fit with the topic of crash reports, but it’s a related concept —

Somewhat surprisingly,  anyone can legally get anyone’s full driving record from adot for a few bucks: $3 for 3 years, and $5 for 5 years.

The catch is, the code section that allows this would be as follows, so can only be used in aggregate data:

5. For use in research activities and for use in producing statistical reports if the personal information is not published, redisclosed or used to contact individuals” — 28-455

General Policy Statement

(linked from the City of Sedona Police Dept’s records page)

I. General Policy Statement
As a political subdivision of the State of Arizona, the City of Sedona is obligated to comply with state laws governing disclosure of public records. Public records are generally presumed to be open for public inspection during regular office hours. A.R.S. § 39-121 to 161.
A “record” means all books, papers, maps photographs, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any governmental agency in pursuance of law or in transaction of public business. A.R.S. § 41-1350. [is this a typo? I can’t find a statute with that number; here is Title 41] A public record would include documents concerning City business in possession of third parties that an employee could request or retrieve.
Examples of public records include, but are not limited to: memos, reports, maps, photographs, email, permits, licenses, applications, agendas, minutes, budgets, phone bills, etc. Examples of items that are not public records include, but are not limited to: extra copies, multiples of blank forms, post-it notes, commercially available software, private papers including purely personal email, and articles or periodicals that are needed only for reference.

What about California Public Records?

The California Public Records Act, CPRA, has a huge open ended exemption for public records release any records of the an investigation by any police agency, §6254(f). Therefore police can and do routinely reject public records requests for any traffic crash.

Note that the police may release these records, but are not required to; many police departments in CA routinely reject requests.

§ 6254. Records exempt from disclosure requirements
…
(f) Records of complaints to, or investigations conducted by, or records of intelligence information or security procedures of, the office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, the California Emergency Management Agency, and any state or local police agency,…

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