Gastonia Police Introduce New Civilian Crash Investigator Program

GASTONIA, N.C. – The Gastonia Police Department introduced a new program Friday meant to relieve officers from responding to non-injury accidents.

The Civilian Crash Investigator Program will mostly handle non-injury crashes across Gastonia. Police said civilian investigators’ duties will be to document the accident, write reports and take witness statements.

“This program is a good investment for the city and the taxpayers. It frees police officers to do more proactive policing, and that’s a win for everyone,” said Gastonia Police Chief Trent Conard.

In 2023, police responded to 4,766 accidents and approximately 86.51% of them were non-injury. So far this year, 85.75% of accidents were non-injury.

Gastonia Police has already hired its first civilian crash investigator, Jeff Johnson. He is a retired law enforcement officer from Florida that moved to North Carolina in 2020.

“I joined law enforcement as a career to help people, so this job as a Civilian Crash Investigator here in Gastonia, is a perfect fit for me,” said Johnson.

The department is in the process of hiring three more crash investigators that they are hoping to be on the road this fall.