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more efficiently and our enforcement operations to become much more
effective.

Uniform Division officers and Traffic
Unit officers responded to 3,387

motor vehicle accidents in 2019,
which was a four percent increase
in the number accidents we
responded to in 2018. Although we

saw a slight increase in the number
of crashes, a marginal increase
such as four percent can easily be
caused by weather conditions

during our winter months. An
analysis of the last two years
showed spikes of fifty or more total
accidents in March and December

of 2019 over the previous year.

One of the department’s most critical traffic enforcement initiatives is the

reduction and prevention of intoxicated motor vehicle operators. Every day,
almost 30 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one
person every 50 minutes. In 2019, the Cranston Police arrested one hundred
and nine people for operating under the influence of alcohol and or drugs. The

number of arrests for operating under the influence has remained fairly steady
over the last four years, with a high of 120 arrests in 2018 and a low of 109 in
2019.

Traffic Unit

The Traffic Unit is falls under the direction of the day Uniform Division
Commander and is staffed by one sergeant, three patrol officers, and one full time
civilian clerk. The traffic unit is responsible for:

Accident Investigation and Accident Reconstruction
• The investigation and reconstruction of all traffic crashes that involve death,
serious injury, or any other incidents that require officers who are highly

www.cranstonpoliceri.gov