Abstract
This study focuses on the policy implications of decisions regarding the expenditure of resources in the investigations of traffic accidents. An outgrowth of earlier police patrol research, it reviews accidents investigated in a medium-sized city in the context of time expended during different phases of the investigation. The accidents were divided into three categories; minor, major, and serious, in order to ascertain the differences in time expenditures according to seriousness of the occurrence. The data was collected for a period of three weeks in 1988 and included a sample of 235 accidents. The findings showed that the average time spent on each case varied from a high of 125.1 on serious cases, to a low of 18.0 minutes, on average, spent on accidents occurring on private property. The study points out that by eliminating certain components of the accident investigation process police departments can free up substantial blocks of time for other duties.
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