Distracted driving by police officers caused 18 crashes in TX since 2009.
Arlington, TX - Sometimes even police officers need to be reminded to drive safely.
Outfitted with cellphones, radios to communicate with dispatch and in-car computers, Arlington police have no shortage of distractions while patrolling in their mobile offices.
Occasionally, that technology can take an officer's focus away from the road for too long, department officials said. At least 18 Arlington officers have been involved in crashes with other cars, curbs, fences and poles over the past three years because they were looking at their devices, not where they were driving, according to police records.
To prevent more wrecks, the police department updated its driving policy -- written before the invention of smartphones -- last month to restrict officers' cellphone and computer activity behind the wheel. The new policy now specifically bans officers from texting, posting to blogs or tweeting while driving a department vehicle.
The policy change comes one year after police began enforcing an ordinance that bans drivers, with the exception of public safety officers, from texting or using cellphones for anything other than phone calls.
That review led the department to require eight hours of advanced driver training for each officer next year and to spell out in writing how officers should handle technology while driving, such as requiring the use of hands-free cellphones when possible and prohibiting typing while the patrol vehicle is in motion.
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"Although the vast majority of Arlington police officers drive millions of miles on city streets and highways without incident, there have been a few instances where officers were distracted to the point that a crash occurred," interim Police Chief Will Johnson said.
All 640 officers are also required to undergo training next year designed to keep them focused on the road and not technology.
"Our goal is zero crashes," Johnson said.
Of the 18 crashes related to electronic devices since July 2009, seven involved officers colliding with other vehicles, according to police records.
The Fort Worth Police Department also took steps recently to make its officers safer while driving police vehicles.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/16/4489364/police-act-to-reduce-distracted.html#storylink=cpyThe department also plans to review technology such as the Archangel II device used by police in Fort Wayne, Ind. The device can shut down the in-car computer's functions when the vehicle reaches a certain speed.
The device requires officers to pull over before they can input data -- other than one-button functions that communicate information to dispatchers such as being en route to a call or on scene -- on their computers. Fort Worth is awaiting a test device to determine its feasibility for the city but does not have funding for such equipment, Knight said.
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Gadgets in emergency vehicles seen as peril.
They are the most wired vehicles on the road, with dashboard computers, sophisticated radios, navigation systems and cellphones.
While such gadgets are widely seen as distractions to be avoided behind the wheel, there are hundreds of thousands of drivers — police officers and paramedics — who are required to use them, sometimes at high speeds, while weaving through traffic, sirens blaring.
Ambulances and police cars are becoming increasingly wired. Some 75 percent of police cruisers have on-board computers, a figure that has doubled over the last decade, says David Krebs, an industry analyst with the VDC Research Group. He estimates about 30 percent of ambulances have such technology.
The use of such technology by so-called first responders comes as regulators, legislators and safety advocates seek to limit the use of gadgets by most drivers. Police officers, medics and others who study the field say they are searching to find the right balance between technology’s risks and benefits.
The computers allow police, for example, to check license plate data, find information about a suspect and exchange messages with dispatchers. Ambulances receive directions to accident scenes and can use the computers to send information about the patient before they arrive at hospitals.
For police officers, there are reasons to constantly be checking a dashboard computer. They might check a license plate of a car they are tailing by using a keyboard to call up a screen, typing in the plate number, then reading more about the owner.
“There’s no way you could do this without eventually running into something,” said Officer Shawn Chase, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, as he demonstrated use of the Gateway computer in a cruiser. And yet, he said, he has tried it, and others have, too.
“The first time you almost rear-end something, you say, ‘Whoa, I better not do this,’ ” he said. “You learn quick.”
Researchers are working to reduce the risk. At the University of New Hampshire (Project54), backed by $34 million in federal financing, they have been developing hands-free technology for police cars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/technology/11distracted.html