unfortunately there hasn't been a tremendous amount of study on the impact of the use of cell phones in our traffic collisions. in large part in many instances you don't have people admitting to the use of cell phones while involved in collisions. you have officers who go out to enforce the law but at the time of the collision unless in many instances there is someone that observes the use of the cell phone and we note that in the collision in many instances the party is not going to admit to their use and that potentially the cause of being involved in the collision. we engage in -- the police department engages in significant amount of public service. just spoke to media relations and this month we tweeted, facebooked just to remind people as drivers you have to adhere to the rules of

the road because you have a greater stake and the harm you can cause operating a vehicle but as pedestrians and bicyclists as well we have to guarantees our own safety. when we cross the street even with a green light look over your shoulder to see if a car is coming. get off the phone when crossinglet street. not wearing ear buds when operating a bicycle and so forth. these are all things that will ensure your safety. one of the things that was very much and important and identified through this analysis of the collision data from 2006 to 2011 was the identification of the post problematic intersections and speed corridors in our city. this report actually broke down by police district so in every district the captains are aware of the five most problematic intersections where they have the highest concentration of

collisions as well as the speed quarters within those districts as well. those being the foundation obviously as things occur in terms of collisions and input from the community on a monthly basis there maybe adjustments by the captains to redirect their enforcement efforts. speed enforcement with electronic devices -- i have liedar here, light detecting and ranging. it's a device effectively replaced radar guns. it's much more accurate. the challenge in our city is that with 10,000 plus intersections, 1200 miles of roadway not all the roadway has been surveyed by the department of engineering, so that these devices can be used. an example we had two collisions on bush street, one at hyde and one at lefon worth

and although speed wasn't a factor both cases were pedestrian violations we wanted to make sure to use the device in those areas so it's surveyed by the department of engineering as well. part of the roll off was the hand held devices by motorcycle officers to issue citations and sharing of a data base for collisions. that has been put in place. the data sharing is between the police department, the department of public health as well as municipal transportation agency and we're still in full roll out of that as well. mta has full access to the department. hph is getting on board with that and some

issues there. we're hoping by the end of the quarter they have full access to all of the data that is now going in almost on a 30-60 day turn around opposed to a reliance on the state wide integrated traffic system which in some cases had a turn around time of 18 to 24 months of traffic data. here are the citation totals and as the chief pointed out we had a decrease in traffic citations issued and we issued the amount here on the slide and breaks it down into districts and identifies the first five categories are the focus on the five, the

speeding the stop sign and failure to yield when turning or u-turn. another category we think is important to capture in terms of enforcement is the enforcement of cell phone laws. as you can see the officers have written over 4600 citations for cell phones. as the annual month for distracted driving -- particularly cell phone violations is april so we're gearing up for that as well. currently we have a downward trend as it relates to citations but it's in accord to staffing. now we're in upward trend relating to staffing i am v

optimistic and the chief is as well and see an increase commensurate with the increases in the department that we see. here are some of the policies and resources guiding the department in our traffic enforcement and education efforts. as you're aware we have general orders specific to traffic enforcement, vehicle collision, investigations and so forth. in 2013 a number of bulletins were issued that actually supplement the direction that officers receive relative to traffic enforcement. the first one as you can see was the a directive to officers how to and what to do at the scene of a traffic collision. in essence the directive is that officers treat collision scenes as they would a crime scene, particularly when there is a potential loss of life and you

have the potential for criminal charges to be at play. the next unit -- the next bulletin was an announcement for the creation of the traffic enforcement investigation unit associate program. we have officers who have a penance if you will for traffic enforcement, for traffic collision investigation. it requires a high degree of y geometry, physics and not just getting the facts but making conclusions based on physical evidence and so forth and we have a good number of officers who have a interest in that and they have supplemented our investigative capacity of the investigators who are full time in traffic enforcement. third one was the creation of the traffic collision unit and

merging the hit and run unit and the major accident investigation team. that leads me to almost the last one. the last bulletin in terms of vehicle collisions really makes a point that the use of the term vehicle collisions is most appropriate to identify the unintended coming together of bodies on our roadway as opposed to the term "accident." we want to create a mind set within the department as well as with the public that these occurrences aren't acts of god. they are when there's an element of negligence on the part of one party or the other and so we can't continue to look at them as something beyond our control. they're completely within our control if we slow down. if we pay attention, if we get off the phone while

driving and stop at stop signs and red lights this will lessen the issues. that's the driving force behind getting rid of the word "accidents" and obviously i -- i skipped over one. dealing with bicyclists involved and collisions. one of the concerns that we're not capturing all of the incidents involving bicycles involved in collisions. a bicycle driving -- riding down the roadway hits a pot hole and the rider actually takes a fall. that say traffic collision as defined by state law and we have made that clear over the years and we reemphasized that mainly in large part because of concerns it's not taken seriously so we wanted to make sure all of the officers are clear on the topic when a bicycle is involved it's

a traffic collision to be taken as you would any other vehicle collision. and as i rush through this i want to kind of leave you with some good news here. as you're aware the departments is on the upward trend with staffing and also on the upward trend with officers and primary mission is traffic enforcement and the motorcycle officers. we are in tune with projected in staffing levels or goals as you can see. we have february 2014 the goal was to have 24 members at traffic company that are stationed at the hall of justice. we are right there. the district stations we currently have 24 and the airport we currently have three. the good news is we just started a class on monday

of 10 officers and we project they will be fully certified to operate our motorcycles in two months, so help is on the way in regards to the use of dedicated resources for traffic enforcement. with that said i will open it up to any questions you may have. >> thank you very much commander and chief for doing this presentation. obviously this has been an issue that is in the forefront of the press and what is happening here in the city, and i want to say i have been talking to the chief about this for a few weeks and he's been keeping me apprize of what is happening and he's on top of it and he said earlier a lot of this stuff people just need to disloa slow down and it's good advice and there is clearly a correlation between the number of incidents and staffing and i am glad staffing is on the rise

thanks to the mayor's office but in the interim it is possible for us to put more officers on the street doing traffic enforcement, not necessarily motorcycle officers but officers and patrol cars. it never hurts to increase the enforcement and i talked to the chief. tijts are expensive and i know the money goes to the general fund and not necessarily the department. can we pull money from the general fund until we're at full staffing to enhance this and with all of the buses and muni buses and bicyclists and increased population it's getting pretty danger. what can we do now to speed up the process? right. to get more out of the officers on the street we have the classes coming out and

the probationaries coming out. we grated -- graduated a class recently and thanks to the commissioners for being there and it's piecing and traffic is a huge piece so the lieutenants came me instruction and the probationary officers we expect a certain level of enforcement out of them in their base duties. in my meeting with the mayor today and the chief of staff we discussed what we discussed earlier is there a possibility while we march towards full staffing could a certain amount of the revenue generated from the issuance of citations go back to fund additional hours of enforcement and the mayor's office is exploring that so i don't know the feasibility of that but that's certainly a consideration. >> thank you very much. thank you again for your presentation and all the time and effort you

put in this as commander of the mta. commissioners about questions? dr. marshall. >> [inaudible] and i always say since i'm not running for anything i can say the politically unpopular things. i mean as far as i am concerned the easier part of this is going to be ramping up the enforcement because that's really -- i mean and now you know the revenue generating side and the department and i think that enforcement piece and i guess it goes back to -- let me talk about the pedestrian piece because i'm a pedestrian. obviously all three and bicycles and pedestrians and i don't know what happened since i have been a kid and safety first and people don't even -- i watch people and -- make because i

learned look both ways when you cross a street when a kid. i don't think people think about that anymore. i am serious. forget the folks who decide to take on -- i'm not even talking about 45, 55 miles per hour driver. i'm talking about 10 miles per hours and bull and mad torwith someone crossing the street and ridiculous. and the eye contact. it's all gone now. i am surprised if more people don't get killed and i don't know if that campaign needs to come back and 50% and the enforcement and on the drivers and i am watching folks. in the eyes of a pedestrian and watching people and like no cars on the street and just me so something has to happen to get people to awaken again, and i said it before. you have to -- you have tourists, bicycles,

this and that and somehow a campaign has to come out to once again do that safety piece and people are oblivious to traffic period. i don't think -- and i'm astounded that folks are just like -- so chief i know you're going to do your part and the commission is going to do their part but maybe the city has to bring back the part about safety and people are just now in another zone. i don't know if it's the technology or don't teach it anymore. i'm not just talking about kids and adults. that's what i see and to me what doing here and the awareness piece and for everything and i could talk about pedestrians and bicyclists and it really has to come back or how else i don't see how it's going to work to our satisfaction and generate

more revenue and our piece but it's going to take everyone involved concentrating on safety first. that's my editorial comment. >> commissioner chan. >> looking to next week and i know we're having the meeting with the board of supervisors on public safety on this issue are we going to do on our side the same presentation or a different one? what do we want out of that meeting? i don't know if we want to think about what we're want out of the joint meeting next thursday at 5:00 p.m. and my thought is we present something close to this and look at best practices and other ideas and like dr marshall said and it's erchg everyone's problem and

the computers driving the cars and more public to talk about that. >> as commander brought up there is a overarching safety plan from the mayor's office and that piece, whatever the awareness piece. i know i spoke to chief white and we have to train them to get to where you're going and also through environmental design piece certain monies have been allocated for physical engineering that would necessarily slow things down -- yeah, just -- things that have been -- i mean there are people from everywhere talking about what might be placed where just to get people to go further to go slower or turn more or whatever so there is that piece too, and then it was at first

blush. i am glad you brought that up. i have comments to go over with the commander and we will go from there. one for instance is to total the officers assigned to the traffic company and make the distinction that the officers assigned to the stations are actually assigned to the traffic company because they're all on motorcycles. i don't want folks to think they do something different than traffic because that's all they do is traffic. >> so the mayor's plan or the infrastructure being thought you have and the department presenting or the mayor's office. >> >> i believe we have someone from the mayor's office and mta and we will be there. and we are touting some of our great ideas and i know the boards have ideas for pedestrians? >> sure. like for instance the tervalone with the walking

campaign and pay attention so you don't get mugged with this and not part of this but the distracted walking campaign is. we did a ton of psa's and to the point i was needled i was on all the time and distracted walking and looking at phones. >> good to know. >> commissioner loftus. yeah, i think we were talking about this six months ago and asked to come back hoping we would see an improvement in the trend that we have seen over some time in terms of the fatalities going up and i think chief you said at this point staffing was an issue at an all time low. it was heart breaking to close the year with a 30% reduction in violent homicides and have the horrific incidents that happened on the streets.

i think everybody in the city is in some amount of shock and i think i just want to acknowledge that we asked to come back here as a commission to look at the data and see if the theory is true and have more officers and issuing more tickets can we prevent more fatalities and obviously with the seven in december and the staffing tells us that our theory that we need more officers writing tickets is true, so i think to commissioner chan's point i don't know if this will come up in a conversation or with the mayor and resources for the department because i really believe in -- i have shared previously with this commission i was hit by a car at nine on 24th and california so i don't think it's a new issue in san francisco. i think when there's more people here and

more bicycles and cars and pedestrianos the street we've all got to be good to each other and take responsibility for that but definitely what is happening right now screams for some real -- what do they say in probation? i'm going to confess my prescution background here. they said "what helps people with probation is swift and certain consequence" and i think the chief said it around violent crime that part of the reason the homicides are down you cleared three times as many homicides and they know they're going to get caught and i know president mazzucco and i know the chief agreed and i am thrilled that we're writing more tickets and the city family is behind we're enforcing the rules on the street because obviously the consequences -- we have

seen so tragic. i will also say that to give voice to what the chief has been saying i am raising my children in san francisco and i walk them to school and i will say what you also have to do as all of us as citizens and we're an oversight board. i don't run the department. the chief has that challenge you about i know as a san franciscan and i say are you looking before you do that and we have to write tickets and enforce the law and talk with each other how to keep each other safe. it's not a blame game. we are in this together and there are families and grandmothers and people crossing the street and the stakes are very high and i just wanted to give voice to that and thank the department for bringing us the truth that we

have to do better and also some ideas that we can bring to the board of supervisors, and i also know that commander ollie and the chief has been working with nicole snyder with walk sf and lea from the bicycle coalition and with the collaborative and getting people to the table and i know they shared ideas and i want to commend the department for being collaborative on that and coming to the public safety hearing with some ideas on really what we need from the board to turn the tide. >> yes. >> thank you commissioner. commissioner kingsley. >> commander thank you for your presentation. >> you're welcome. >> can we revisit this maybe in three months to get an update on -- >> you're going to get more on thursday. >> no, but i mean -- yeah, to keep track going forward. i

know as a city we're going to look at this but from the department, the arrests, the citations and the accidents what time frame makes sense? >>i am happy to do a quarter update and whatever the first meeting in april, july, first in october. >> sounds great. sounds good. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> anything fusht further for the commander on this issue? thank you this is good for next week. >> to close this and i know we're doing a presentation on the 22 and director ganin has aske for the commission's

indulgence to do it later and things might be incomplete and not to assume things but we're hopeful it will be worked out but our budget analyst asked the same thing that we do and is sick and if that is okay we would appreciate it. >> that sounds reasonable. thanks chief. >> [inaudible] >> please call line item 3b. >> occ director report, review of recent activities. >> >> good evening. thank you commissioners and no report tonight. director hicks was going to give a report but she's absent and not until the next meeting. >> please call 3c. >> commission reports and president's report and commissioners report. >> i attended the graduation

and 43 new officers. it was 43. i skipped many other graduations. i want to thank the other commissioners present. it was a great group of men and women and diverse group and bilingual group and a very proud day for their family and friends and i want to thank you chief. >> they're tall. they're a very tall class. >> commissioners, anything to report? commissioner loftus. >> no problem. i just wanted to report that i went to an event that the department put on -- i wouldn't say it's an event but bringing the academy class to the boys and girls club at hunters point and it's interesting and i try to go to things i don't get invited to

and some say it's crashing the event but they let me in and it's the kids from the area and the officers and i appreciate the chief setting the tone and the role in the lives of kids and lives that are ravaged and the chief doesn't toot his own horn and the kids and officers were having a great time and i learned we had the first female president of the in coming class in 10 years and met her and she is committed to recruiting and getting more women and it was wonderful and i want to thank the chief for not inviting me to something so special. >> thank you. commissioner kingsley. >> well, i too went to the

graduation last friday and to just elaborate a little more about that. this was an extremely impressive group of graduates. there were a number much speeches given by the graduates themselves and very articulate thoughtful, intelligent, clearly had absorbed so much in their training. great video and also the awards that they received for being at the head of the class in certain areas and the actual numbers of how high they achieved in those categories was all just very extraordinary i thought in terms of the class in general and the caliber of people that are new officers going out on our streets and

it leaves us with a sense of pride and hope and trust in the type of officers that we're going to have in our streets in addition to of course the diversity. >> thank you very much. dr. marshall. >> yeah, i just want to say i think this is the first meeting since the gun buy back chief and again great operation. it was very smooth that day. you did it at the boys club and the gun buy back and i think even more impressive on that day in four locations around the state of california, san jose, oakland, san francisco, los angeles that collectively we collected 1500 guns. >> wow. >> to get off of the streets so for the state and our participation it was great and