Evaluation of Law Enforcement Agency Injury Severity Assessments

Abstract

Across the United States large discrepancies have been found between law enforcement officers’ injury severity assessments and medically assessed health outcomes of crash victims. This research investigated injury severity discrepancies across law enforcement agencies, analyzing linked crash and medical data for each crash victim from 2010 through 2019 for 520 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. Serious injury (KABCO “A”) assessments were overestimated in 45% to 90% of crash victims, depending on the agency. Statewide the overestimation rate was 65% across all agencies; the State Patrol overestimated 65% of serious injury assessments, 60% for county sheriff offices, and 64% for municipal police departments. These discrepancies can skew safety estimates and affect the allocation of funds. KABCO definitions were changed to a federally mandated uniform standard in Wisconsin in 2017. Results from an interrupted time series analysis found no significant effects from the changed KABCO definitions, either immediate or over time. At county sheriff’s offices overestimation increased as a function of county population size, and decreased with increasing total reported crashes from a jurisdiction, suggesting workload negatively affects overestimation rate, whereas relative familiarity with crashes and their severities improve overestimation rates. Different trauma scales (MAIS and ISS) and serious injury thresholds were investigated, and ISS of nine was proposed for future KABCO comparisons. Findings show that although KABCO “A” assessment overestimation is an issue everywhere, the magnitude of the issue varies from agency to agency and underscores the importance of uniform injury severity training to ensure accurate serious injury surveillance across the United States.