Names removed from highway patrol crash reports online

By Kyle Schmidt

Those who look at Missouri State Highway Patrol crash reports online may notice something is missing.

Beginning on Nov. 1, the patrol no longer includes the names of those involved in traffic crashes and boating/drowning incidents in the reports posted on its website.

Sgt. Shane Hux with the patrol’s Troop H based in St. Joseph, said the conversation to make this change started with a change to the Drivers Privacy Protection Act.

“We just decided that it’s no longer a benefit related to public safety to release that information,” Hux said. “It can still be obtained by people through our criminal records division.”

People with legal access can get the names by submitting a request, which costs $5 per report, on the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s public records website, he said. Those requests go through Jefferson City and it’s not clear how long they will take to process.

Another reason for the change is to protect people from possible fraud.

The patrol was recently notified of scam incidents across the state targeting motor vehicle crash victims and/or individuals associated with someone who was involved in a crash,” a press release on the change states. “These suspects may have used information obtained via public databases, including the patrol’s online reports, to sound credible.”

The details of crashes still will be included in online reports, and details of those involved will include gender, age, injury type, city where the person is from and whether a safety device was used.

“It’s going to be a safety for the motoring public hopefully to avoid these scams, getting their personal information out there because we all know about identity theft, fraud and stuff like that,” Hux said. “We’re just trying to eliminate that.”

The patrol already had stopped naming juvenile victims involved in crashes.