Alabama Uniform Traffic
Crash Report
A Newer Approach that Promises
to Save Time, Effort and
Paperwork
By Matthew Rabiee
Why Change?
► Everyone
knows police officers hate
paperwork almost as much as they love
doughnuts.
► The mountain of paperwork is just one of
the reasons any police officer would be
hesitant to change the way they do their
jobs.
► So why go through the added hassle?
The Risks of Change
►
The police work in a constantly changing and often
dangerous environment.
►
Changing a time-tested way of getting the job done could
equal headaches, but more importantly, has the potential
to introduce an additional element of hazard to their work.
►
A standardized form such as an accident report requires a
great deal of accuracy; the information it contains largely
determines responsibility for events that are very costly,
and often life-changing.
The Benefits of Change
►
A new level of accuracy: An electronic system can offer
greater flexibility and a more efficient way to record the
events surrounding an accident.
►
Simplicity and Convenience: An electronic system is not
limited by physical constraints like a sheet of paper, so
there is less need to cram a mountain of information on a
single page.
►
Time, Time, Time: An electronic system can eliminate the
redundancy involved in re-writing and transferring
information.
The hardware that makes it possible
Tablet PCs offer computing
power comparable to that of a
desktop.
The Walkabout is a weatherproof tablet pc. It’s case is
made of Magnesium alloy and
is built to absorb shock.
The combination of touch
screen and stylus pen give
added flexibility.
Built-in Wi-Fi support means
data can be transferred with
security and speed, without the
need for wires.
A First Look: Better Design
The start page acts as a gateway to the
most vital tasks.
►
An electronic form system can outperform the handwritten reports in
many respects.
►
A computer program allows for
information to be organized in a
way that is both simple and more
effective.
►
The software has the ability to
adapt to the preferences and
needs of individual officers.
►
Various categories of error can be
detected as the form is being filled
out, limiting revision time and
preventing inaccurate data.
Crash System : Some Basics
►Pressing
the Statistics
button allows the officer
to see statistics related
to file processing.
Officers or departments
may also specify data to
aggregate permanently,
such as alcohol related
accidents or home
addresses of rude
motorists.
►
The logout button provides added security from deliberate
tampering, as well as unintentionally pressed keys, etc.
Help is always just a click away
1)
3 Methods to Choose From
Standard help files, with
contents, search, and index.
2)
Run the Active Question Mark,
which can be dragged to the
problem area for specific help.
3)
Finally, pop-up hints can be
enabled so that a mouse
pause, and/or repeated
mistakes will initiate a help
dialog.
Create a Report : Overview
►
►
This page separates
the report form into
3 broad categories.
The customize
button provides
navigation and menu
sequence/content
options.
• Example: An officer may want the default action when a report is
initiated to be open the driver information form.
Create a Report : Initialization
A popup prompts the
officer to initiate the
report by entering case
numbers.
After a case is initialized,
the saving of fields is
handled automatically.
The customize feature
allows officers to specify
a range of case numbers,
similar to what a ticket
book has. These fields
can then be generated
automatically.
Create a Report : Extra Controls
 The Field Integrity
Check tool box
toggles open and
shut. This allows it
to provide instant
information without
costing screen
space.
 An officer can run a
check at any time.
Empty or incorrectly
formatted fields can
then be referenced
by index number
and title.
The Jump to Field Index button opens a concatenated index of
all the fields for those who prefer to use one big list.
Extra Tools - Continued
The pen and paper icon
at the bottom right of
menu screens allows an
officer to jot notes with
a stylus or onscreen
keyboard.
► The notes are then
associated with the
currently initialized
report, and
automatically saved
with time and section
details.
► The edit button on the
main page allows the
notes to be reviewed
later and applied to the
report.
►
Sample Form Fields: Vehicle Information
►
The actual forms are
further broken down
into sub-categories.
The Driver
Association Box
displays the
associated driver’s
name.
► A pop-up reminder is
issued if this field is
left blank and the
user tries to exit.
►
Vehicle Information, Continued
Each form box is
tabbed, and can
be minimized or
maximized to
cover the entire
screen.
► The drop-down
boxes provide
lists for the
relevant field.
► They can be
customized to
act as regular
input boxes if
The Customize option also provides a wizard that allows officers to the user prefers.
move forms between categories and change category labels which, in
short, gives complete control over the organization of the form.
►
A Brief Example Usage
Officer Lydell logs into his trusty
Hammerhead Walkabout and presses
the Create a Report button.
 He is prompted to enter case
Which he does.
 Not a moment after this task I is
completed, Officer Lydell catches
a glimpse in the corner of his eye
...
 His FULL box of doughnuts are
being swiped from the dashboard
of his cruiser ! ? !
Usage Example, Page 2
Officer Lydell gives chase,
but to no avail, as the
bandits have a get away
car lying in wait.
► His quick-thinking reminds
him to hit the pen and
paper icon in the bottom
right corner of his screen.
► He quickly jots out the tag
and model number, and
radios in an APB.
► After regaining his
composure, Officer Lydell
clicks on the Vehicle
Information button and
resumes his crash report.
►
Usage Example – Page 3
Officer Lydell
begins by
checking the box
next to Jimmy
Hua’s name to
associate this
vehicle with him.
► He then fills the
rest of the fields
in by either
entering text or
choosing from
the drop down
boxes.
►
Usage Example – Page 4
►A
short time later, Officer
Lydell has gone through
the rest of the form, and
completed his data input.
► To check his accuracy, he
runs the Field Integrity
Check. It returns “Fail”. A
quick click of the Invalid
Fields drops down box
shows that there was a
problem with his
initialization, field 1a.
► Officer Lydell clicks the
index listing and gets the
initialization pop-up.
► He unchecks Amendment
and reruns the integrity
check.
Usage Example – Page 5
The Integrity Check now
returns a Pass.
► Officer Lydell finishes by
clicking the Logout button.
► His report has been saved,
and will be ready to upload
to station’s computers at the
end of the day.
► This completes a basic usage
of The Alabama Crash
Reporting System.
►