Written by A Six Sigma Green Belt project was launched by the Police Department to reduce the number of preventable accidents involving marked police vehicles, which leads to reduced fleet availability, repair expenses, and risk to officers and the general public. The accidents have been stable and not improving between 2013 and 2017. The goal was to reduce accidents by 20% by 2018.
This project supports the County’s strategic plan:
- TP 2-1: Reduce traffic accidents
- TP 3-2: Provide attractive, well facilities and vehicles
In 2017, 154 marked vehicles were retired from service due to accidents at a cost of $4,389,000. In addition, accident claims, body work, lost officer time and investigation cost accounted for another $2 million, for a total impact of $6.5 million.
The team conducted a process map, Stakeholder Needs assessment, and conducted data collection activity on 300 accidents.
The data showed that:
- 84% of accidents were doing “routine and non-emergency” operations
- 80% occurred at a time other than responding to a call
- 58% of accidents involved officers with 1 or more previous preventable accidents
- 97% of accidents occurred when the officer’s vision was not obscured.
Root cause analysis was performed, and countermeasures were prioritized to the following actions:
- Driver refresher training
- Investigate hands-free technology and other technology and safety options
- Increase in disciplinary actions for crashes
- Track crashes in central database
As a result of the improvements, the investment of $242,000 will return an annualized savings of $688,000, which is a 2:1 return on investment.
To download the full project report, you can read more at https://www.miamidade.gov/performance/library/projects/reducing-marked-police-vehicle-accidents.pdf