The Groton Police Department is partnered with Ledyard Police Department, Stonington Police Department, and Groton City Police Department to form the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Traffic Unit. This unit specializes in examining all elements contributing to motor vehicle crashes to reconstruct crash scenes which result in serious bodily injury or death. Members of the Groton Police Accident Reconstruction Unit are considered experts in this field and have completed a minimum of 240 hours of specialized training created by the Institute of Police Technology and Management (IPTM) as well as the University of North Florida.
Officers utilize crash damage analysis from involved vehicles, roadway evidence such as skids, scrapes, scuffs, and drag factors, as well as witness accounts as a starting point to begin the reconstruction. Officers then take the given information and work backwards by applying several formulas using algebra, geometry, trigonometry, triangulation, calculus, and physics to gather unknown data points. Officers are able to accurately calculate minimum vehicle speeds, angles of impact, principal direction of force, and changes in velocity when a crash occurs.