CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Monday night, Charlotte City Council agreed to appropriate $1,271,000 to a new Civilian Crash Investigation Program. The funds are coming from the Municipal Debt Service Fund and will be moved to the Capital Equipment Fund to purchase vehicles for the program.
The idea behind the program is to have civilians addressing car crashes to ease the burden on police departments, especially departments that may be struggling to hire.
“When you’re having trouble recruiting you don’t want to use those scare resources investigating very tedious things," North Carolina Rep. Wesley Harris, said.
The statewide legislation to allow programs like these in North Carolina was signed into law last year.
It's important to note, the civilians involved in the program would only respond to traffic crashes that solely involve property damage.
“This will help us respond faster in an efficient manner while delivering cost reduction to our officers and just reducing their workload,” Charlotte City Council Member Dimple Ajmera said.
It's a similar approach to the Matthews Police Department's citizen volunteer group. That group started in 2012 and they now have over a dozen people.
“They do clerical stuff for us, they do fleet management, help us move cars around," Officer Tim Aycock, Public Information Officer for the Matthews Police Department, said. "A lot of things that the officers usually have to do, or admin staff, they take on those responsibilities and it’s a tremendous help.”
Officer Aycock said it not only saves sworn officers time, but it also creates community.
“We have citizens by our side and it’s easy because we can kind of pick their brain about what’s happening in their communities, their neighborhoods," Aycock said.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said it will launch its program this summer, starting with 16 civilian crash investigators. Those investigators will work Monday through Friday.
CMPD also noted the program will use a mix of hybrid and fully electric vehicles.
The department said hiring these civilian investigators should allow CMPD officers to focus on other priorities. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, CMPD named crime reduction and emergency response as priority areas for the department.
Flashpoint is a weekly in-depth look at politics in Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond with host Ben Thompson. Listen to the podcast weekly.
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