CJK0402 – Traffic Crash Investigations is a 30-hour course within Florida's 770-hour Law Enforcement Basic Recruit Training Program, carrying zero credit hours as a clock-hour academy component. It is the largest of the academy's four traffic courses.
Traffic crashes are among the most frequent calls a patrol officer handles and among the most consequential to document correctly. A crash report determines civil liability between the parties, supports or defeats criminal charges where impairment or recklessness is involved, and feeds the statewide data used to allocate safety resources. Officers write these reports knowing insurers, attorneys, and sometimes prosecutors will read them closely.
The course teaches a systematic method: securing the scene and attending to injuries first, then identifying drivers, occupants, and witnesses, documenting vehicle positions and roadway evidence, photographing and measuring, determining the sequence of events and the contributing causes, and completing the Florida Traffic Crash Report.
Roadway evidence gets specific treatment — tire marks and what different types indicate, gouges and scrapes, debris fields and what they say about points of impact and rest, fluid trails, and vehicle damage patterns. Recruits learn to read a scene rather than rely solely on driver accounts, which routinely conflict.
The course also establishes the boundary of a patrol officer's role. Fatal and serious-injury crashes are handled by traffic homicide investigators with extensive additional training, and recruits learn to recognize when to stop, preserve, and call rather than proceed.
The course is offered at approximately 20 Florida institutions, all of them state colleges operating criminal justice training centers or regional public safety academies: Chipola, College of Central Florida, College of the Florida Keys, Daytona State, Eastern Florida State, Florida Gateway, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Gulf Coast State, Hillsborough, Indian River State, Miami Dade, North Florida, Northwest Florida State, Palm Beach State, Pasco-Hernando, Pensacola State, Santa Fe, South Florida State, St. Johns River, and Seminole State.
Four academy courses cover traffic, totalling 90 hours — a substantial share of the 770, reflecting how much of a patrol officer's work is traffic-related:
They are normally taken in sequence, and the legal foundation for all four is Chapter 316, Florida Statutes (the Florida Uniform Traffic Control Law), covered in CJK0018 Legal.
The Law Enforcement Basic Recruit Training Program (LEBRTP) is a 770-hour academy required for certification as a sworn law enforcement officer under Chapter 943, Florida Statutes. The curriculum is written and maintained by the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (CJSTC) through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, so content is consistent statewide. The full sequence:
Every component is a clock-hour course carrying zero credit hours, and none counts toward an associate degree.
Completing this course does not certify anyone. Recruits must finish the full 770-hour academy, pass the State Officer Certification Examination (SOCE), and satisfy the employment and background requirements of Chapter 943, F.S. Certification is granted by CJSTC, not by the college, and an officer must also be employed by an agency to be certified.
Requirements attach to the academy rather than to this individual course: minimum age 19, U.S. citizenship, high school diploma or equivalent, no felony convictions or disqualifying misdemeanors, a background investigation, a physical examination and drug screening, and a passing score on the Florida Basic Abilities Test (CJBAT). Requirements are set in statute and by the training center.
Academy training is PSAV clock-hour instruction, not college credit, and does not transfer as general education. Many Florida colleges award block credit toward an A.S. in Criminal Justice Technology for full academy completion plus certification, under local articulation agreements rather than statewide SCNS equivalency. Confirm terms with the receiving institution.
Officers already certified in another discipline — corrections to law enforcement, for instance — complete abbreviated crossover programs drawing on a subset of these courses rather than the full academy. Candidates should work from the crossover curriculum published by their training center.
Section 316.066, F.S. makes statements a driver is compelled to give for crash-report purposes inadmissible in a criminal proceeding. Because Florida law requires drivers to report and to provide information, those statements are compelled — and using them criminally violates the privilege. The practical consequence is that an officer investigating a possible criminal offense at a crash must separate the crash investigation from the criminal investigation, and give Miranda warnings before the criminal phase. Failing to make that transition correctly is a recurring source of suppressed evidence in Florida DUI and vehicular homicide cases. The course covers it specifically because it catches officers out.
A patrol officer's crash investigation authority has a ceiling. Fatal crashes, crashes with serious bodily injury, and crashes likely to result in felony charges are handled by traffic homicide investigators, whose training runs weeks. Recruits are taught to recognize those cases early, preserve the scene without disturbing evidence, and request the specialist. Proceeding beyond one's training on a fatal crash can compromise a prosecution permanently.
Crash reports are used to assign civil liability, and both parties' insurers and attorneys will scrutinize them. An officer's diagram, measurements, and causation findings can be challenged years later in deposition. This is a strong practical argument for the documentation discipline the course teaches.
Generated August 31, 2026 · Updated August 31, 2026