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Police Commission hears Safe Streets quarterly report as citations rise and injuries fall
Summary
Commander Ali told the San Francisco Police Commission that Vision 0 partnerships and enforcement produced a 54% jump in traffic citations through Q3 and a 15% decline in injury collisions; advocates praised the training video but urged more focus on five high-risk behaviors, which currently account for 23.8% of citations.
The San Francisco Police Commission heard a quarterly update on the Safe Streets for All initiative on Dec. 3, 2014, with the department reporting a large increase in traffic enforcement alongside early declines in injury collisions.
Commander Ali presented data showing the department wrote 95,275 citations through the end of the third quarter, up from 61,974 in the prior period, which he described as "a 54% increase in citations" compared with 2013. "Up until the end of the third quarter of this year, our department has written 95,275 citations," Ali said during the presentation. He added that department and MTA-validated data show a 15% reduction in injury collisions in the first three quarters and reductions in several injury-severity categories.
The report, tied to Commission Resolution 14-26 (Safe Streets for All, adopted May 7, 2014), highlighted the department's work with Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition on education and a training video intended for officer lineups. The video, Commander Ali said, reviews enforcement issues such as unsafe turning, failures to yield, opening vehicle doors and road rage, and reiterates collision-scene protocols and the Traffic Collision Investigative Unit's role.
Cycling and pedestrian advocates praised the department's enforcement and the new materials but pressed for a sharper enforcement focus on five behaviors the city identified as most likely to cause severe collisions. Tyler Frisbie, policy director at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, commended the "65% increase in focus on the 5 citations overall" but warned that "only 23.8% of all traffic citations are focused on the 5 violations," well short of the Commission's 50% target.
Speakers discussed differences across stations: Richmond Station was cited as exceeding the 50% focus-on-the-5 goal, while Central, Southern and Tenderloin stations showed much lower rates. Commissioners asked the department to study Richmond's practice for wider adoption and to continue multilingual outreach; partners said handouts are produced in English, Spanish and Chinese and that MTA-funded bus-stop ads and PSAs will be used to reach drivers.
The Commission thanked the department and advocacy partners and said it will review the next quarterly report to track progress and station-level improvements.
