Overview
The Pima County Sheriff's Department's Traffic Unit is comprised of one sergeant, seven deputies, and one senior administrative support specialist. The Unit is responsible for the investigation of fatal and serious injury vehicle collisions, patrol vehicle collisions, train wrecks, plane crashes, and industrial accidents. Unlike many other investigative units, the Pima County Sheriff's Department’s Traffic Unit has a dual role. In addition to completing extensive in-depth investigations, unit members act in an enforcement role by operating marked patrol vehicles and performing traffic and DUI enforcement on a daily basis.
Traffic Unit responsibilities include on-scene investigation, reconstruction, and other post-incident investigation which could lead to the charging of suspects involved in automobile collisions which result in serious injury or death. These incidents result in a range of charges from simple civil traffic violations to First Degree Murder charges. The Traffic Unit also follows up on hit-and-run investigations and assists other criminal investigation units with the diagramming or mapping of crime scenes. Intentional criminal acts involving the use of a vehicle are referred to the appropriate detail that normally investigates those types of crimes.
Each deputy assigned to the Traffic Unit receives extensive training in vehicular homicide investigation and DUI enforcement from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, and the Institute of Police Technology and Management. Several unit members are certified as Drug Recognition Experts by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
The Traffic Unit takes an active leadership role among Southern Arizona law enforcement agencies through its work in training and investigative support for other jurisdictions. The Pima County Sheriff's Department's Traffic Unit, in conjunction with the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, hosted over 400 hours of training in collision investigation by presenting the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety curriculum of Collision Investigation 1, Collision Investigation 2, and Vehicle Dynamics. To date, this training has been attended by more than fifty students from six local law enforcement agencies as well as Pima County traffic engineers.
The Traffic Unit provides year-round training for members of the Pima County Sheriff's Department as well as recruit-level training at the Department's Academy in "Traffic Law and Collision Investigation."
The Pima County Sheriff's Department's Traffic Unit participates in each Southern Arizona DUI Task Force Operation and Department sobriety checkpoints through-out Pima County. These checkpoints are aimed at detecting and deterring impaired drivers. The Traffic Unit, in conjunction with the DUI and Motorcycle Enforcement Unit, deputies from each patrol district, Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers, and the other Special Operations Units, conducted over 114 checkpoints since 2006 resulting in 361 DUI arrests. Over 71,000 vehicles passed through these checkpoints. Each motorist was given a questionnaire regarding the operation of these checkpoints. To date, over 94 percent of Pima County residents who responded to this poll favored the use of sobriety checkpoints in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s efforts to remove impaired motorists from Pima County roadways.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department launched a zero-tolerance enforcement campaign, "Project BUS," aimed at ensuring motorists obey traffic laws around school buses that are boarding or unloading children.