Crash Course: Kyarah Littlejohn Joins LPD as First Civilian Crash Investigator
{Photo Credit: Antionette Kerr/Davidson Local}
In Lexington, not every crash requires lights and sirens—sometimes it just needs Kyarah Littlejohn and her LPD laptop.
Littlejohn is the police department’s first Civilian Crash Investigator, a new role created to handle car accidents involving property damage only. That means fender-benders, parking lot scrapes, and the hundreds of crashes each year that don’t require a sworn officer.
“I’ve always been into investigating,” said Littlejohn, a Lexington native and 2019 graduate who studied criminal justice courses at Fayetteville State University. “When this job came up, I felt like it was a great opportunity to get in and learn.”
Sergeant Derrick Toby said the position is already proving valuable.
“So it’s been important because it takes a lot of the stress off of some of the patrol officers that are answering more high-risk calls versus while these patrol [respond to] property-damage-only wrecks, [which are] pretty much a civil matter. That work takes those officers and lets them go handle the more high-risk calls. It may be handled sooner than later,” Toby said.
The numbers back him up: in just four months, Lexington police responded to about 410 crashes. Roughly 270 involved no injuries, and about 110 were low-speed parking lot collisions. That means nearly two-thirds of all local crashes now fall under Littlejohn’s jurisdiction.
“It takes those officers and puts them back in the neighborhoods, allowing them to do other things versus just working little civil-matter traffic crashes,” Toby said.
The Civilian Crash Investigator program has existed for years in larger cities like Wilmington and Fayetteville, but Lexington became eligible in 2023 when the state expanded guidelines. With 62 officers on staff, the mid-sized department saw the position as a way to free up officers for urgent calls.
Littlejohn has completed state-required training and testing and is in the final weeks of supervised field work before responding to calls independently.
Many of the accidents she sees are preventable. Parking lot backups are especially common. Toby noted that backup cameras—now standard in most vehicles—have already reduced crashes within the department’s own fleet.
For Littlejohn, the role is about teamwork. She may not wear a badge or carry a gun, but she plays a vital role in keeping Lexington moving.
