CAMERA USE TO COMBAT FRAUD; OFFICERS WILL DOCUMENT CRASHES AT SCENE.Byline: Donna Huffaker
GLENDALE - Traffic investigators in the Glendale Police Department are going high-tech to battle insurance fraud. Leader Insurance Company's donation of four digital cameras to the department will enable officers to document an accident at the scene, record damage to the vehicles and capture how many people are involved, said investigator Burnam McCollum Mc·Col·lum , Elmer 1879-1967. American biochemist and nutritionist who first classified vitamins, distinguishing between fat-soluble (A) vitamins and water-soluble (B) vitamins. . ``Insurance fraud, when people make claims for damage that never occurred or injuries they never suffered, hurts everyone,'' McCollum said. ``More claims mean higher premiums and that costs the taxpayer.'' McCollum could not cite an exact number of fraudulent The description of a willful act commenced with the Specific Intent to deceive or cheat, in order to cause some financial detriment to another and to engender personal financial gain. insurance claims filed in Glendale, but he said the city shows a high number of suspicious claims. Traffic officers had used a 35mm camera to take pictures of the more serious crashes, he said. It was a sluggish process, however, requiring officials from the crime lab to go to the scene and then wait for the images to be developed, he said. With the donated do·nate v. do·nat·ed, do·nat·ing, do·nates v.tr. To present as a gift to a fund or cause; contribute. v.intr. To make a contribution to a fund or cause. Sony digital cameras, valued at $500 each, officers will receive instantaneous in·stan·ta·ne·ous adj. 1. Occurring or completed without perceptible delay: Relief was instantaneous. 2. documentation, said Patrick Cleary, an investigator in the Pomona office of the Dallas-based Leader Insurance Company. ``Our goal is to be proactive and to protect the policyholders' interests and keep their rates down,'' he said. A common form of insurance fraud is when drivers inflate inflate - deflate the number of people in the car and file phony claims of injuries, McCollum said. That kind of fraud leads to more than $20 billion in losses across the country every year. If the cameras help pare the cost of fraud, Cleary said, they will implement the program in other cities. Traffic Sgt. Ed Desario said officers will use the digital cameras to photograph just about every traffic accident. The images, which are stored on a disk, will be downloaded onto a computer and printed out to go with the handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. report. Basically, it's a reality check, he said. ``It still may not be a perfect process, but it'll show a bent fender when someone claims to have totaled a car,'' he said. |
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