How to Get a Police Report in NYC, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island & Queens

Find how to obtain a police report, a/k/a police accident report, or crash report for a car accident in NYC, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island & Queens. This article will give you all the information about police reports in New York.

Note: We cannot help you obtain a police report unless we represent you for an injury. If we represent you for an injury, we can obtain your police report for you.

Fastest Way to Get a Police Report in NYC

The fastest way how to get a police report in NYC is to request a copy of an NYPD police report at the NYPD precinct where the accident occurred during the first 30 days from when the report was filed.

Find an NYPD police precinct (It usually takes 1-3 days after the accident for your report to be available, but it can take as long as a week or two.)

How to Get a Police Report in NYC Online

Within 7 days after the precinct has your accident report available, it will be uploaded to the online portal. Request your NYPD police accident report online using the Collision Report Retrieval Portal.

How to Get a Police Report From NYPD By Mail

Download and complete 2 copies of the Police Accident Report (Request for Copy of Collision Record) and mail them to the precinct of occurrence.

How to Get a Police Report in NYC More Than 30 Days After It Was Filed

Police Accident Reports are held by NYPD at the precinct for 30 days before being forwarded to the New York State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles.

After 30 days from the date of the accident report, all requests for NYPD police accident reports must be made to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It can take DMV 14 days before the police report is available.

NYS DMV keeps police reports on file for 4 years but only if the report indicates the cost of repairs to the vehicle was more than $1,000 or if there was an injury noted on the police report.

If the police officer didn’t check the box marked “Yes” for “Cost of repairs to any one vehicle will be more than $1000” or indicate an injury on the police report, you won’t find the police report on file at NYS DMV.

Requests to NYS DMV for a police report must be made either by mail or online as follows:

By mail: use form MV-198C [PDF].

Download your New York police report and/or driver reports (MV-104) online from the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles.

See more about police accident reports at NYS DMV and “What’s the difference between a police report and a certified police report?”

How to Get a Police Report in NYC if DMV Doesn’t Have the Police Report Online?

Try to get a copy from the insurance company that insured any of the cars involved in the car accident.

Easiest Way to Get a Police Report in NYC

Don’t waste your time! If you were injured in a motorcycle accident, car accident, or any motor vehicle accident anywhere in New York, you don’t need to know how to get a police report in NYC or anywhere in New York. When we’re your personal injury lawyers, we will get the police report for you!

Just call us now for a free, no-obligation consultation. If you want the best New York motorcycle lawyers in New York for your accident, call us, and we will obtain the police accident report. If you had a car accident, call us now or see car accident lawyers in New York. We will take care of everything for you.

How to Read New York Police Reports

Download a New York police accident report key code sheet (3-page PDF)

Must a Police Officer Record Information on the Police Report About a Car That Cut You Off?

Often, a police officer will not record the information on the police report about a car that cuts you off if the police officer thinks there was no contact between the car and you or your motorcycle. Police officers call that car an uninvolved vehicle.

What is contact with a car? Contact can be as simple as using your hand to hit or push off the car when it gets too close to you.

Police officers frequently and incorrectly believe that there is nothing you can do if your motorcycle is cut off by a car. But that is not true!

If you were cut off without contact and you have the car’s plate, you have a third-party liability case. That means we can sue the owner and driver of the car even though there was no contact. That is why police officers should record the license plate, registration, and driver’s license information of the uninvolved vehicle.

If you were cut off with contact between you or your motorcycle and the other vehicle, and you do not have the car’s plate, you had a hit-and-run motorcycle accident. That means you have an uninsured motorist case, and we can file an uninsured claim for you even though the police officer did not record the license plate, registration, and driver’s license information of the other vehicle that left the scene.

If either of these events happened to you, call us immediately!

Police officers still frequently fail to record the other vehicle’s information on the police accident report even though we sent this letter to the New York City Police Commissioner: police accident reports-NYC asking them to record the information. We also sent the letter to the Police Commissioners of Nassau and Suffolk. A Sergeant in the Suffolk County Police Commissioner’s Office called me and said his office would tell police officers to record the other vehicle’s information on the police accident report in the Notes section.

If you were injured when a car cut you off, call us first.

How to Correct or Amend an Incorrect New York Police Report

See How to Correct or Amend a Police Report in New York.

What Can I Do if the Police Officer Will Not Correct a Police Report?

When you think a New York Police report is wrong and you can’t get the police officer to change the police report, you can file a driver’s accident report, called an MV-104 Driver’s Accident Report. See How to Fill out Your MV-104 Accident Report.

Does a Police Officer Have to Correct a Police Report?

No. Police Departments in New York do not have a legal duty to a motorist to file a police report or correct a police report. See why a police officer does not have to correct or amend a police report in New York.

What to Do When a New York Police Report Wasn’t Filed

If a report wasn’t filed, you can file an MV-104 Driver’s Accident Report. See How to Fill out Your MV-104 Accident Report.

How to Get a Police Accident Report on Long Island

See How to get a police report on Long Island

How to Send a Police Report to Your Lawyer

Download a free scanner app for Android or iPhone:
Adobe Scan: PDF & Business Card Scanner with OCR for Android (Free)
Adobe Scan: Document Scanner for iPhone (Free)

The Adobe Scan app is like taking a photo of your police report, but instead of a hard-to-read photo, it will scan your police report and create an easy-to-read PDF file that you email or a link you can text to your motorcycle accident lawyer.

This video shows you how easy it is to use the Adobe Scan app to send the police report and other documents to your motorcycle lawyer

How to Get a Stolen Car or Motorcycle Report

If you’re looking for how to get a copy of a stolen car or motorcycle report, you want a report called a Crime/Lost Property report for a stolen car or motorcycle. Find out here how to get a copy of a stolen car or motorcycle report in NYC.

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