Badger TraCS Guides
Pursuit
- Geraldine Polster
- David Harvey
Pursuit Form
The Pursuit form within TraCS is used to report an individual law enforcement agency’s involvement in a police pursuit, or the lack of police pursuits by a law enforcement agency for a given year.
Beginning January 1, 2018, law enforcement agencies were required to use the Pursuit form in TraCS as the required reporting mechanism for law enforcement agency “police pursuits”. The new reporting form was designed after a review of numerous other pursuit reporting forms in use by other states and agencies. The Pursuit form also includes the necessary information for the completion of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Pursuits form, for agencies that also contribute pursuit information to this separate source. (IACP Pursuits Data Form.pdf) The form was designed to provide for efficient collection of valuable pursuit details for use by the reporting agency, policy makers, and legislators as required by statute. The information collected in the new TraCS form also allows for like agencies to more easily compare pursuit data. Unlike the legacy pursuit reporting system that had a single agency as the reporter for a given pursuit, reporting via the Pursuit form in TraCS has each involved law enforcement agency documenting their own agency’s pursuit involvement through the use of the form.
The form is Transmittable to the WisDOT/DSP
A “No Pursuits” report is required for any year in which the law enforcement agency has 0 pursuits.
The following pursuit reporting content is from the WILENET/Resources/WI State Patrol - Information and Resources page where it is accessible to all Wisconsin law enforcement.
85.07(8)(a) Definition - “police pursuit" means an active attempt by a traffic officer in a police vehicle to apprehend one or more occupants of a moving motor vehicle, the operator of which is resisting apprehension by disregarding the officer's visual or audible signal to stop his or her vehicle, increasing the speed of the vehicle or extinguishing the lights of the vehicle.”
85.07(8)(b) Mandatory Reporting - “Not later than August 15 of each year, each law enforcement agency, as defined in s. 165.83 (1) (b), that uses police vehicles shall report to the department, on a form prescribed by the department, information on police pursuit engaged in during the preceding 12 months by law enforcement officers employed by that agency.”
Process: Reporting of all police pursuits and years with “zero pursuits” is accomplished through the completion and transmission of the Vehicle Pursuit Form in Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS).
Vehicle Pursuit Form questions or suggestions: Pursuits@dot.wi.gov (law enforcement only)
The legacy pursuit reporting website (accessed through WILENET) was made unavailable after January 1, 2018.
Completed Pursuit forms are to be transmitted through TraCS to the Wisconsin State Patrol’s TraCS system.
Form Design
The Pursuit form contains the following groups:
Document
Transmission History
Summary
Details
Other Involved Agencies
Associated Crashes
Pursued Vehicle/Driver
Initial Violation
Discovery Violation
Starting Location
Ending Location
How to:
Document Group
Each Pursuit form contains one Document group. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below.
Pursuit Type
This is a required field for filling out the Pursuit form and one cannot move off the field until it has been entered. This is a form mechanic field and the three types of crashes have varying degrees of validation rules.
Agency Pursuit Report – For use by agencies that initiated a pursuit and/or had a vehicle(s) involved in an active vehicle pursuit.
No Pursuits to Report for Year – For use by agencies that have no pursuits to report for a given year.
Summary Group
This section contains general information about the pursuit. Every Pursuit report contains one summary group. The green highlighted fields are form mechanic fields and should always be entered for the form to work properly.
Details Group
This section contains general information about the pursuit. Every Pursuit report contains one Details group. The green highlighted fields are form mechanic fields and should always be entered for the form to work properly.
Other Involved Agencies Group
The section below becomes available depending upon the number entered in the “Total Other Agencies” field.
Associated Crashes Group
The section below becomes available depending upon the number entered in the “Total Known Crashes” field.
Individual Group
Each Pursuit form contains one Individual group. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below.
Violation Initial Subgroup
Each Pursuit form contains up to 99 Initial Violation groups. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below. The “Additional Violation Description “field is optional and used to add additional statute or ordinance description information. This information will display on all reports.
Violation Discovery Subgroup
Each Pursuit form contains up to 99 Discovery Violation groups. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below. The “Additional Violation Description “field is optional and used to add additional statute or ordinance description information. This information will display on all reports.
Starting Location Group
Each Pursuit form contains one Location group. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below. The primary way to populate the location group is to use the TraCS Location Tool (TLT). If TLT can’t be used, type Override in the Map field. This will enable all the location group fields thus allowing manual entry of information.
Map
The field used to trigger the TLT
On Roadway Link ID #
Used to help RP Code the Location, brought in from the TLT
On Roadway Link Offset
Used to help RP Code the Location, brought in from the TLT
Override
Used to tell the DOT if the TLT was used.
Ending Location Group
Each Pursuit form contains one Location group. The fields within the group are shown in the figure below. The primary way to populate the location group is to use the TraCS Location Tool (TLT). If TLT can’t be used, type Override in the Map field. This will enable all the location group fields thus allowing manual entry of information.
Map
The field used to trigger the TLT
On Roadway Link ID #
Used to help RP Code the Location, brought in from the TLT
On Roadway Link Offset
Used to help RP Code the Location, brought in from the TLT
Override
Used to tell the DOT if the TLT was used.
Related content
email badgertracs@dot.wi.gov or call 608-267-2096