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State bill would allow civilian investigators for some crashes

State Sen. Paul Lowe (D-Forsyth) has filed a bill that would allow unarmed civilian personnel to investigate certain traffic crashes.

The bill comes at a time when law enforcement agencies like the Winston-Salem Police Department are struggling to fill vacancies.

The civilian investigators would be trained by local law enforcement but there would be notable differences between the two. Under Senate Bill 77, the non-sworn investigators would be uniformed differently, drive cars without blue lights and would not be issued badges or weapons.

They would also have no authority to make arrests.

The civilian enforcement personnel would be allowed to move or tow vehicles that are obstructing streets or highways and would create reports that would be treated as if they were written by a law enforcement officer.

Their work would be limited to property-damage cases. Sworn police would still investigate those crashes involving injuries or fatalities.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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