ComPol: Police Officers Who Wreck Vehicles Pay For It

Chester Williams

Who pays for those expensive vehicles that the police department uses for mobile patrols when they are involved in accidents? That was another question that Commissioner Williams was asked. Williams said that many times the accidents are no fault of the police driver, but civilians who crash into them. But when it is the police driver’s fault, he said they would have to pay for the vehicle repair.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We have done a lot of training in defensive tactical driving with our officers and we’re seeing that while there’s some instances where the accidents are the faults of the police, there are many instances where it is not the police fault. We have issues where drunk driving is the issue. And when accidents occur and the driver who is at fault is a drunk driver, the insurance company does not compensate. And many times those people are men of straws. We can’t get anything from them. So to get the vehicle back in good repair, the government has to foot the bill. It’s unfair, but we need the vehicles, and so we would normally foot the bill to get the vehicles in good repair. When the police officers are at fault, then the police officers would have to pay to fix the vehicle.”