Supervisors, SFPD and SFMTA review traffic enforcement as speed-camera citations rise

San Francisco supervisors heard updated data and competing proposals for reducing roadway deaths and injuries at a Sept. 25 Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee hearing on the state of traffic enforcement and street safety.

President Mandelmann, a long-time sponsor of hearings on enforcement, opened the discussion by tracing the steep decline in traffic citations since 2014 and describing residents’ concerns about drivers “behaving really, really badly.” He said, “It means officers once again on our streets enforcing the basic rules of the road, including speeding,” and urged a combination of enforcement and technology to restore visible accountability.

Commander Luke Martin of the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Operations Bureau detailed SFPD data and operations. Martin said departmentwide citation totals fell sharply after 2014, dropped further around the COVID-19 period and have begun rising again in 2023–2025. He told the committee that traffic company staffing is “down to 18” officers and said a fully staffed traffic company in a fully staffed department would be “around 80.” Martin described enforcement tactics including LIDAR speed operations, “wave” operations that repeat targeted deployments at high‑injury locations, and…