All crashes in Colorado are investigated by law enforcement and the data are sent to the Department of Revenue (DOR). Crashes in unincorporated Jefferson County are investigated by Colorado State Patrol (CSP). The investigating CSP officer completes a crash form (DR2447), which is then sent to DOR. Incorporated jurisdictions within Jefferson County are responsible for investigating crashes within their boundaries. DOR processes the crash records and enters them into a database called DRIVES, where the official, legal record is maintained.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) receives data from the DRIVES system for all crashes, excluding private property and counter reports. Counter reports are self-reported by drivers and are not investigated by a law enforcement officer. CDOT processes or “codes” the crash data received from DOR. This process adds an additional field for crash type, corrects common errors, updates location information where available, and normalizes the data. CDOT typically compiles data and releases the data in 6 month increments, with approximately a 6 month delay when data is available. CDOT may delay the release of data to address known deficiencies allowing for data corrections or to download additional data that is delayed through the DOR process. CDOT provides summary data upon request in a tabular format. CDOT does not release personal identifying information including names, driver’s license numbers, addresses, birth dates, license plate numbers, VIN numbers, local and state identifiers such as case numbers, etc.

When a new crash data increment is available from CDOT, Jefferson County requests the crash data for the entire county, however the county further processes the data in the unincorporated portion of the county to correct spelling errors, to geocode crashes missing longitude and latitude, and to code crashes to a linear referencing system. Once this processing is complete, the data is used to identify crash patterns, to develop crash mitigation projects, to perform county-wide planning, and to identify behavioral patterns. Once Jefferson County processes new data, available data for the entire county is added to the Jefferson County Open Data Portal and made available to the public. Finally, the processed data is sent back to CDOT to further improve the state-wide crash record database.