What to know first. For a Virginia Beach Police crash report, you’ll usually go through Virginia DMV, which charges $8 and mails the report.
Virginia Beach Police
VBPD’s report request page says reports for incidents from December 2022 on go through its FOIA office, and its online report page directs crash report requests to DMV. That split surprises people who expect to pick up a crash report at the precinct. The crash report itself is a DMV request. Other materials, such as body-camera video, photos or a related incident report, may be a FOIA request to the department. VBPD headquarters is at 2405 Courthouse Drive, phone 757-385-4141. Keep the case number the officer gave you. You will need it.
Requesting from DMV
DMV’s crash report page says you can send a written request or the CRD 93 form with your role in the crash, the date, time and location, the driver’s name if you weren’t driving and your license number if you were involved. Mail goes to Room 514, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Post Office Box 27412, Richmond, VA 23269. You can also fax the request to (804) 367-0390, or visit a customer service center. The fee is $8, and DMV says it is refunded if no report is found. The agency sends copies by first-class mail, so build in time for both processing and delivery.
The official DMV page is on the Department of Motor Vehicles website, under the police crash report request section. Use that page or the CRD 93 form so you include every item they ask for. An incomplete request is a common reason for delay.
Who can get a full copy
Section 46.2-380 opens crash reports to people who were involved or injured, to vehicle and property owners, and to their attorneys and insurers, among others the statute names. If you are one of those people, you can request the report. If you are not, you may receive a version with private information removed, or you may be told you cannot have it. A lawyer you hire can request it on your behalf.
Norfolk and the interstates
Norfolk Police and Virginia State Police reports are also available through DMV, using the same $8 process. If the wreck was on I-264, I-64 or at a bridge-tunnel, there is a good chance state police worked it. Use the agency name on the officer’s card when you fill out the form. Ordering from the wrong agency, or leaving the agency blank, is another common delay.
The report has value, but it is not a verdict. An officer’s narrative and any contributing-factor boxes carry weight with insurers. They do not bind a court, and they can contain mistakes. If a name, a plate, an insurance company or a direction of travel is wrong, ask the agency that worked the scene how a supplement or correction is handled. Factual errors are easier to address than a disagreement with the officer’s opinion of fault. For that kind of disagreement, photographs, witnesses and camera footage are usually the better answer.
If no officer came
Some parking-lot and low-speed crashes end without a report. You should still exchange names, plates and insurance, photograph the scene and tell your own insurer. Virginia’s stop-and-identify duties in an attended-property or injury crash are described in the hit-and-run guide and in the first-week guide. A missing report does not pause the two-year deadline to sue.
Using the report without leaning on it too hard
Once the report arrives, read every page, including the diagram and the vehicle list. Check that your name, your insurer and your vehicle are correct, and that the other driver is too. Share it with your own insurer, and keep a copy. If you later talk with a lawyer, bring the report, your photos and any case number from the officer.
Do not wait on the report to get medical care or to give notice to a city or transit agency if a public body may be involved. The six-month and one-year notice periods in the public-body guide do not pause while mail travels from Richmond.
Questions people ask
How long does DMV take? It sends reports by first class mail, so allow time. If nothing arrives after a reasonable wait, call DMV and confirm that the request was complete and that a report exists for that date and location.
What if the report has errors? Ask the investigating agency about a supplement or correction, and keep your own photos and notes.
Can I get the officer’s video from DMV? No. DMV sells the crash report. Video and similar materials, if they exist, stay with the police agency and are usually requested from that agency.
If you were in a rideshare vehicle, a motorcycle crash or a wreck with a truck, the report is still the same kind of document, requested in the same way. What changes is the other proof you should be gathering at the same time, which the guides on those crash types describe. Do not let a slow report become a slow investigation of cameras, witnesses and insurance.
Pay the $8 fee in the form DMV asks for, and keep your receipt or canceled check. If the report does not arrive, that proof of the request is what you will need when you follow up. A note on your calendar two or three weeks after you mail the form is a simple way not to forget.
Keep reading with your first week and Virginia fault rules.