[ad_1]
Westminster is bringing back a retired traffic officer after officials have seen an uptick of people getting killed in automobile accidents in the city.
It comes in a city that’s wrestled with political infighting by council members over the past few years to the point where elected officials have asked a Superior Court judge to step in.
[Read: Westminster Asks a Judge to Help Rein in Unruly City Council Meetings]
Now, city officials are looking to reduce the number of fatal car crashes after Westminster saw 13 fatal car crashes in 2024 – a significant increase from four in 2023.
That’s the second most number of people killed in car crashes in a year, according to a staff report.
Facing a shortage of traffic investigators amid a rise in fatal collisions, Westminster City Council members voted unanimously at the Feb.12 meeting, to bypass a standard hiring restriction in order to reinstate a retired traffic investigator.
Council members approved rehiring Officer Stewart DeJong, who retired in January, on a temporary basis by the Westminster Police Department, to help investigate crashes and train new personnel.
DeJong had been assigned to the city’s traffic division for the last nine years, assisting in traffic investigations.
The proposal was brought forward at the request of Chief of Police Darin Lenyi and Human Resources and Risk Management Director Jodie Griner.
City records obtained by Voice of OC through a public records act request show there were 6 officers assigned to traffic enforcement since 2021, however with retirements and failed recruiting efforts, that number has dwindled to four active traffic officers.
The city’s one dedicated traffic investigator retired in October 2023.
Data from city records from 2021-2025 highlight Beach Boulevard, Bolsa Avenue and Westminster Boulevard, as some of the most collision-prone parts of the city, with five of the top 10 high-collision areas located at intersections along Beach.
Last summer, the department tried to fill the role but received zero applications. According to city documents, staff is “young and with a lack of experience of working in the position.”
“I think one of the biggest reasons that that position is so hard to fill is because a lot of people really don’t understand what doing that position entails in order to be effective,” Commander William Drinnin of WPD’s Traffic Division said in an interview.
“Not everybody has that kind of training, or maybe they don’t want to take on that amount of work or responsibility or something, because of what it entails.”
Traffic investigators often oversee complex cases, specializing in reconstructing collisions and preparing comprehensive detailed reports for legal proceedings.
“You have to know physics, you have to know trigonometry, calculus, all this stuff. And then you essentially have to recreate this entire scene in order to tell the story as to how this person ultimately was killed in this traffic crash,” Drinnin continued.
The city’s traffic investigator is responsible for crime response and investigation, traffic enforcement, crime prevention and public safety, as stated in the job description.
Along with assisting in the division’s workload, the request states DeJong’s primary focus will be training new traffic officers who lack experience in investigations, reviewing procedures for areas of improvement and finding areas of improvement to reduce fatalities.
As the city works to address immediate issues involving staffing shortages in their traffic division, Drinnin said the city is in the midst of finalizing a strategic plan to tackle the issue.
“I work directly with our traffic commission, our traffic committee, our assistant city manager has a traffic engineering background as well, and at the end of the day, we’re always looking for ways to improve.”
Related
[ad_2]
Source link
