Hit and Run filing police report question

[gymnastlc319]

What sort of steps do police officers take when filing someone's hit and run claim?
Do they have a way to look up a car if a person only took a car to the shop for a quote?

Thanks!

[txinvestigator1]

The police don't file claims. You do that with your inurance.

But your local police will track you down to file criminal charges.

[retdetsgt]

Your question is very confusing to say the least. Are you asking if police check body shops for hit and run suspects?

[phantasm]

If someone is injured, or if damage is in excess of $1,000 then NY requires the state to be notified as well.

[viperphi]

I pull up and roll my eyes slightly that I am about to do a hit skip accident report for an insurance company. I get out of the car and I speak with you about how you were driving your car minding your own business when out of the blue, a likely uninsured suspended motorist changed into your lane sideswiping you. You look at me shocked after telling me that they fled the scene. How could a person just leave like that? The law says to say and at least exchange info. I roll my eyes again after you give me a vague description of a car that matches ten different models and the plate you recite doesn't come back to any car in the state.

I give you an accident report number and tell you straight up that your insurance will probably be taking care of this one. You look at me shocked and ask why we aren't going to throw the combined might of my department at these evildoers. My radio chimes in. I am dispatched to a shots fired call at the drug corner. You look at me aghast as I run to my cruiser, incredulous that I won't be staying to apply some more personal service to your Mickey Mouse call.

Your insurance company calls my department's records room to get the report faxed over. My records room has no record of this report being completed. I get six nasty grams in my inbox when I come back from my solitary day off asking where this report is. My sergeant comes over and asks me where this report is. I now have been asked where this report is 7 times. I walk out wondering how our stupid MDB's could again fail to upload a completed report to the server and I curse our IT guys and our lack of anything modern in our cruisers. I hear the voice of the mayor in my head from my graduation "I give the department all they need". As I go to find the cruiser I did the report in to try and re-upload it, my Captain calls asking about the report. I'm asked why they had to call six times before anything was done. 8th time now on one report. Nobody takes into consideration the six phone calls were in the span of an hour.

I find the report and it was uploaded. I find out that my sergeant just hasn't approved it yet because on that night, he took three at the end.

Your insurance company gets the report 1 week later when sergeant gets back from vacation. I have by this time fielded the where is this report question 47 times and have crushed no less than six kittens.

You pay your deductible. Your car is fixed. The evildoer that hit you is still driving under suspension with no insurance. Karma is slow some times.

This is the procedure... For me anyways. I'm salty tonight. It's my birthday and I'm sick.

We have a hitskip unit... I have never actually seen them, but I've heard good things.

[retdetsgt]

This is the procedure... For me anyways. I'm salty tonight. It's my birthday and I'm sick.

Sounds like it.... (Also sounds like your dept is bit screwed up too.) Hope you feel better.

Our dept has a pretty good hit and run unit operating out of traffic. If there is only property damage, the followup will be limited, mostly because we have so many of them. If there is injury, they will do a lot more, including contacting body shops in the city.

[ParadeRest]

In NY, if you have an accurate description of the car then we will put the info on the report and let your insurance company fight it out with the other party's insurance company (if any). Unless there are injuries, the investigation into this ends with me leaving. I know it sucks but that's how it is. Basically a civil matter.

[Cat_Doc]

I find the report and it was uploaded. I find out that my sergeant just hasn't approved it yet because on that night, he took three at the end.

This happens all the time, here. I don't know why (well, maybe I do) your captain was not smart enough to have someone check your sergeant's pending approval file.

This irritates the hell out of me on day shift when I get several requests a day to approve other squad's reports because they are a "squeaky wheel" or are hitting time limits and the county attorney needs to see the report NOW or the suspect walks.

The sharp sergeants will let their squad know they are taking some time off and advise them to send their reports to the other working sergeant, or on-coming sarge, for approval. They will also let the other sergeant know so they don't get butt-hurt seeing additional submitted reports.

Now, to the OP, non-injury hit and runs are very low priority considering the reduced resources in this messed up economy. 1st responders (patrol) are too busy, the traffic unit is too busy on hit and run injury follow-up and other command intent assignments. And detectives would kick you in the gonads for even asking if they would take a look at it.
The harsh realities of trying to do more with less during this recession.

[retdetsgt]

This happens all the time, here. I don't know why (well, maybe I do) your captain was not smart enough to have someone check your sergeant's pending approval file.

It's in our SOP. We have several Sgts per shift in each precinct and one is always designated to stay late, if necessary to approve all reports at the end of the shift. If someone is working way past the end of shift, arrangements are made with the Sgts from the oncoming shift to approve it.

The other side of the coin is that street officers are required to complete and turn in all reports before they leave too. Failure to do so can result in discipline. And I'm a big fan of that requirement. It's maddening as hell when you're a detective and get a call from a victim or witness on a crime and the officer hasn't turned his the report yet.

[viperphi]

The majority of our reports are digital, ie basic incident and accident reports. So they get done right after we clear the scene and go around the block unless there is a waiting call that is priority. So we get our stuff done. The problem is once we sign it and send it, it's out of our hands. It can get lost in transmission (pfft! But we hear that alot for Info Systems.) or it gets delayed with the supervisors.

The problem is that our accident reporting software is from the Windows 3.11 era working on an XP platform. It's just old. Every time I fire up the program, it's like a blast from the past. I might as well start at a C: prompt. We hit send and we never actually know if it went anywhere, even if it says sent.

But again, the mayor stated that we already have everything that we need. I would also kill to be able to pull up BMV photos in my cruiser. Instead, when I think someone is misrep'ing me, I have to bust out my cell phone and look them up that way. It'd be nice if it had a picture next the the big SUSPENDED notation. Instead, it's a "well it could be him" stop and our muni court seems to uphold it. I think it's shaky PC. I try to wait for another violation because I don't feel warm and cuddly inside when I go to suppression hearings.

[Cat_Doc]

The other side of the coin is that street officers are required to complete and turn in all reports before they leave too. Failure to do so can result in discipline.

All high profile and in-custody arrests are supposed to be done before you go home unless you have prior supervisory approval to deviate. All reports taken during the work week must be turned in for approval before going on RDO's. The problem is that a lot of the sergeants will give approval to complete a report the next day if it is near EOS to cut down on overtime. That means the day shift supervisors get hit with a lot of inquiries from records wanting to know status on reports from swings and graves.

We are under mandate, and have been for a couple of years, to reduce OT, so it turns out to be a Catch 22. We just deal with it.

[retdetsgt]

We are under mandate, and have been for a couple of years, to reduce OT, so it turns out to be a Catch 22. We just deal with it.

We go through that periodically. Usually the precinct captains just b!tch at the supervisors and troops, but we had one precinct captain who used a novel approach to that problem. He ordered radio not to dispatch any cars in his precinct to any calls (other than high priority) the last hour and a half of each shift. No after shift OT, but citizens started getting pissed when no one showed up for well over an hour.

It didn't take too long for the chief to find the money for after shift OT after a few weeks of that.

But the fact officers needed to turn in all reports at the end of shift was still the bottom line. How that was accomplished was a matter for the command to wrestle with. Carrying over a report can be habit forming for some people.