Philly police-involved ‘preventable' accidents cost taxpayers $15 million

In the fall of 2021, Eric Williams was driving his two elementary-aged daughters to a back-to-school event when he came to a stop at a traffic light. 

“A second later, I heard a boom force which shot me into the middle of the intersection,” he said. 

A Philadelphia Police officer driving a marked SUV rear-ended him, totaling his car. 

Williams and his daughters went to the hospital instead of the school event. Williams said the girls were shaken up, but OK physically. He had neck and back pain. 

That crash was one of more than 1,600 police vehicle accidents between March 2020 and April 2024 looked at by the Philadelphia Police Department’s Safety Review Board, according to records obtained through a Right-to-Know Law request by the NBC10 Investigators.

The board, which consists of PPD’s Safety Officer and the commanding officers for training and crash investigations, determined that more than 1,000, or 63 percent of those accidents --  including the one where Williams was rear-ended -- were preventable. 

According to the city’s guidelines, an accident is deemed preventable when an officer is not acting in compliance with PPD policies or the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code, and did not take all reasonable actions to avoid the crash. 

A third of those preventable accidents resulted in recommended disciplinary action. 

“When you look at high numbers, sometimes they could be an indicator of a problem, but it could be policy compliance,” said Scott Wolfe, Michigan State University Director of the Ph.D. Criminal Justice program. 

Wolfe was part of a group of researchers who looked into police-involved accidents in California.

We shared Philadelphia's numbers with him.

“It's not only an officer safety issue, but a citizen…community safety concern,” he said.

Philly Police declined our request for an interview about its preventable accidents. We tried asking Commissioner Kevin Bethel about it recently as he walked into Police headquarters. He too declined to comment.  

The NBC10 Investigators’ review of PPD crash information found that 60 officers had three or more preventable accidents between mid-2017 and April 2024. 

Twenty-three officers had four or more.

The officer who crashed into Williams had six accidents during that time frame that the city determined could have been avoided. 

“I don't think that officer should be on the road. That's too many accidents,” Williams said.  

Six days after that officer crashed into Williams, he crashed again. That accident was also deemed to be preventable. 

“Oh, wow. Yes, that’s unbelievable,” Williams said. “He might need his license revoked.” 

We reached out to the officer but did not hear back. The police department declined to make him available for an interview. 

It’s unclear if he was disciplined. The police department redacted the section of the records that shows what discipline was recommended, if any. 

But the Safety Review Board meeting summaries between July 2020 and May 2024 do show that 333 preventable crashes were recommended for discipline.

Wolfe says police crashes impact more than just the people involved. 

“Taxpayers pay for cruisers and they pay for time off for officers that get hurt and they pay for lawsuits stemming from citizens getting harmed,” he said. 

An NBC10 Investigators review of court records and city settlement data revealed that Philadelphia has spent more than $15 million between 2020 and 2024 settling lawsuits in police-involved crashes that the department determined were preventable.

Williams received $40,000 of that money through a lawsuit settlement with the city. 

“I definitely don't think that's going to compensate me for my pain for the rest of my life,” he said.

There are other preventable accidents that have left drivers with broken vertebrates, pedestrians without legs, and some have been killed. Those have cost the city more money. 

But even in those incidents, the city has a $500,000 cap on paying for damages for such accidents. It is protected under the state’s constitution by a law and cap that was established in 1978, and has not been adjusted for inflation. 

Williams says that the city should consider regularly training officers on safe driving.

“To prevent these accidents,” he said. 

Wolfe says while refresher training is good, “it’s not good enough.”

When he studied police-involved accidents in California, he and his research team found that field supervisors, not the department’s top brass, are key to driving down the number of accidents. 

“A patrol sergeant, a field supervisor, is really key to officers' understanding policy, what they're supposed to do, what they're allowed to do and then buying into that policy,” he said.