Scottsdale collision reports now for sale online

Scottsdale motorists involved in fender benders can now buy instant traffic collision reports online.

The Scottsdale Police Department started offering the service Monday through a partnership with Michigan-based Tracview.com. The collision reports, which will be available for the public to download 24 hours a day, will be available five to 10 business days after a crash.

"We were approached by insurance companies and investigators on obtaining a service like this one for some time," said Scottsdale police records manager Michael Keran. "Convenience was the main piece in our decision. Insurance companies, investigators and citizens can now have the option of downloading the collision reports online as opposed to coming down to the station or requesting by mail."

The reports can be bought online with a credit card for $9. Residents can still buy reports at Scottsdale police headquarters or request reports by mail for $5.

"The extra charge is a convenience fee for customers," said Josh Puuri, head of customer support at Tracview. "Tracview is a tool to save people time."

Puuri declined to release information about the company's annual revenue or its income earned on each report. The company's Web site says Tracview gives police agencies $5 each time a report is downloaded, and the rest of the $9 fee helps offset the company's costs for hosting and indexing the data as well as billing and customer service.

Keran said Tracview offers many services that the city could not provide.

"We did not have the service space, information indexing, 24-hour customer service or manpower to supply the same service that Tracview would at no cost to the city," he said.

Keran said the partnership is also designed to cut down on public records requests and allow the department to use resources for other purposes.

"When we looked into it, we also realized that there were major conveniences and cost savings for the city as well," he said. "By putting the collision reports online, we only had to process the report once versus the five or six times before. On average we process about 450 collisions a month, so this is a huge timesaver for us."

Valley insurance companies said the service will also help streamline their business.

"We utilize online services as much as we can," said Gus Miranda, a State Farm spokesman. "We find this service incredibly convenient, and it saves us valuable time. Scottsdale joining an online service just makes it easier for us to get our reports to our claim representatives quickly."

To access reports online, customers must have the collision report number from police.

"Officers on the scene of the collision will hand the drivers a business card that has the date of the accident, the accident report number and the Web site's address," Keran said.

Reports are available online for crashes going back to Jan. 1. Older reports can be made available for download on request. Scottsdale is the only Arizona city using this service.