safe. firearms, we ended up with a thousand and 23 firearm seizures for the year which is helping us in reducing violent crimes. our officers are trying to get guns off the streets and out of the hands of people who wish to use them illegally. 1,023 firearms were seized. there's been a lot said about our priority crime. we know we have a pervasive and challenging problem in address ing property crime in our city. violent crime does play into that. when we have violent crime it's difficult to focus on crime. the way we ended the year, gave us the ability to do some things with property crime that we would not otherwise had the ability to do. if we were still grappleing with that rapid increase in homicides moving forward, we have made some significant structural changes to better address our

property crime as well. we had 30,980 properties last year which was 24% increase over the year before. when we looked at a five-year trend, we went from 15,000 in 2012 to 30,000 car break ins last year which is upward trajectory we need to turn around. we've added some things to our reptoire, including standing up, a general crimes unit in november. that consisted of 48 investigators, 10 of which are dedicated to property crimes. they have city-wide responsibility. they work with the station investigators to identify crews that are multi-jurisdictional inside and outside of the city. in addition, when we enhance our foot beats in august, that's when we started to see the increase in homicide, not to say that's the answer but we think it will help us both in our property crime efforts and our violent crime efforts.

and then we are enhancing our prevention campaign. park smart is the name of our campaign. we've been doing this for the last several years. this campaign was created in part with some of the business owners on the fisherman's warf area. park smart sen courageing people to take some responsibility and not leave things in their car that make it an easy target. the last thing that we are doing there, not the last thing but one of the other things, we are assigning at least one person in each district to coordinate property crime with a focus on bike thefts and car burglarys and burglar he's. this is something new. our station investigation teams are general investigators which means, whatever case comes your way, you are investigating. you get a burglary one day and robbery the next day and car theft the next day.

what we want to do is focus collaboration. the station person that would be designated will coordinate the property crimes effort, particularly bike thefts, car burglarys and we think it will be a value added and we'll make adjustments. we really have to turn this around while we keep our violent crime in check. that's where we're headed with our crime efforts. we'll keep you posted on how things are going. the next thing that i want to talk about is our staffing, particularly it relates to overtime. commissioner dejesus, raised the questions of how we track overtime. i promised the board we would do a minimum quarterly report. where we are in overtime right now, we are about 50% of the

fiscal year last and we spent 55 % of our overtime. we're a little bit up by 5%. however, the asterisks on that is that 762,000 of that overtime was due to our patriot efforts. we have over a million dollars, 1.2 million to be exact from overtime from our mutual a participation. when we participated in the north bay fires. when you take those two things out, we're 45% of where we -- we would be 5% under our fiscal year spending. the good news is our aid is we will get reimburseed. the pay tree at prayer is an event that was unanticipated but it's something that i think was well worth the money that we spent in it because we had an event-free day during that weekend. or that day. so we will focus on this. if we can keep things in check

for the rest of the year, we should be able to stay within our overtime budget. we will report back to the commission next quarter. keep an eye on this and continue to manage our overtime. as far as our staffing, we are at 1,873 current pool duty officers which is 4.9% below the 1971 pool duty staffing mandate. we have anna an -- academy class the next academy class is in february. as we work to our next budget process, to see what we need to do to make the appropriate adjustment. to make sure we live up to attrition or up to attrition. our goal is to make our 1971 charter mandate within this coming year. or this year. that is our staffing. with that, the head of the -- i'm sorry.

major events this week. first, let me go to last week. new year's eve was very, basically quiet in the city. we had a significant robust deployment for new year's eve. attendance was down somewhat. i think the city-wide planning went really, really well. it was an uneventful night, thankfully. people had a good time and event free. upcoming this week, we have several festivities related to martin luther king day. there will be a parade monday, january 15th. sfpd will attend and participate there's a town school m.l.k. freedom march january 12th from 9:30 to 11:00. there's also a annual m.l.k. march in golden gate park this friday and m.l.k. march on thirw

saturday january 13th from 9:00 to 11:00. that is it for the significant events for this week. the last thing i have to report, an update, this was an request from commissioner hertz on our chapter 96 data analysis. i believe the issue was where are we in terms of data analysis ? the department and i have said several times that we're trying to secure private or independent research to help with that analysis. so we have two independent, one academic institution, one non-profit institution that we are in m.o.u. negotiations with. we hope to have that done in a very short amount of time. i was gone back and fourth with some of the language and we have an agreement with principle with

one of the entities. the other one their attorneys are looking at the m.l.u. i hope to report those agreements are signed and these institutions will help us better analyze the data that we're collecting. so that is where we are, sir? that will be it for this portion of my report. >> chief, thank you. we are also supposed to be embarking on the measure that was passed on staffing levels and how we are looking on those. have we put in to place or play how beer going to begin that process as of yet? >> well,ness and no. there's -- well, yes and no. there's things happening and we have been working with supervisor yi's o there are

several staffing analysiss being done right now. all of them really are doing the same thing. different versions of the same thing. we're working with the controllers' office to satisfy much of what supervisor yee asked for in his resolution and catherine mcgwire has a lead on that and we already have controllers office and put together some of the things that we are looking at in terms of staffing. we're also doing some internal staffing analysis review that will get the controllers what they need in terms of a better set from our staffing. a lot of things are happening in that direction. the mayor's office has asked for some of the same information for staffing. we are working very hard to satisfy all of different request for staffing. many of them overlap.

that's why i said yes and no. we work with supervisor yi's office to explain what we are doing and how these things come together. >> you anticipate having some type of initial report or feedback for us? >> withel controllers' office i believe within the next couple months we should have some initial reports. >> all right. commissioner. >> thank you, chief. thank you for reporting back on the homicide rate going down. it took a lot of work to do that i've got a question, whatever you can share with us about the condition of our two officers that were seriously injured last year. i don't want to lose sight of what they've been going through. one was shot and the other run down. is there anything you can share with the commission about their current status? >> yes. thank you for bringing that up. with the first officer that was run over, amazingly he is doing much better. i mean, it was some very good

work by the hospital, by his family and friends, and people that supported him. he is still rehabilitateing, but he is actually talking now and just significantly better than the initial prognosis so i'm happy to report that and happy you asked about that. we're asking that everyone continue to support him and keep him in your thoughts. with the other officer, that was from the halloween shooting, he is doing well. there was some very significant concerns initially. his doctors also were very thankful he had a good team of doctors. he is recovering and expected to make a full recovery. >> having been at the hospital both nights. i want to thank the doctors at san francisco general hospital.

that place is incredible what i saw that night. the public doesn't see what the officers go through. it impact impacted me and i want to thank the doctors there. last but not least, on a positive note, you seem to leave out major events that happened with your alma mater winning the national championship, the university of alabama. so i just want to congratulate you. >> thank you, very much. [laughter] >> ucla was robbed. [laughter] >> any other questions for the chief? >> item 1b. >> sorry, commissioner -- >> i just want to acknowledge to the public i know and you know about this that part of the collection of the firearms was due to a gun buy-back we had in december. i think we brought in 180 or something like that. >> close to 200. >> i just want to acknowledge they're working getting guns off

the street. and got some christmas presents for a lot of people. >> thank you. that was a very successful gun buy-back. thank you foray announcing that. >> item 1b. directed to report on b.p. activities and announcements. >> including director anderson. >> good evening. i will keep this brief. i know we have a heavy agenda. a lot of the updates i have, are mostly about our internal projects we're working on with d.p.a. we have a new reception. one of the first things i started on when i got there was trying to fill out some of the vacancies in my office. obviously, the big priority are my investigators. which i started on with day one. i have them in the pipeline. we're getting close to -- we've ordered the new list, interviewed people and they're going through the background process now and as soon as we

get the approval, we should be able to bring those new investigators on. at least five are in the pipeline for right now. some of the new things that we're doing internally, we're bringing staff up to speed for public records so we can be better outward facing. i know you are in the middle of our budget talks right now for new expenditures, not typically included in our annual expenses. those were covered things like the new website, these are projects that were either under funded or in no funded. training for the office. our training budget was $4,000 for the entire office so these are some of the smaller or bigger things that need to change. the expansion for prop g which was not included in the budget, which we're expanding, as well as uniforms. an ex an expansion of our mediation process. if anyone has questions i'm available. i will point out, present

tonight is also my deputy chief-of-staff, sarah hawkins, as well as steve ball, one of my investigators so if anyone has any issues with my department tonight, they're available throughout the tire tee of tonight's public meeting. >> thank you. >> i'm glad you brought up the investigators, is it true the department background checks were delayed hiring your investigators? >> it's a background that takes a very long time. they have taken up up to three months for our new employees. >> have you met and conferred with the chief? i don't know how many investigators you have in the pipeline that are being delayed. >> five. i think there's 10. nine or or 10 in the pipeline but five that are ready to go as soon as i get the grown light. >> maybe you can confirm with the chief it's disabling to start the new year without five investigators. >> i agree.

i started the process with those investigators on july 1st and to the credit the chief and i have been talking about -- it's clear what the problem is. it's less clear how we'll fix the problem. it's not as easy as just waving things or moving it forward. >> can you let us know. it's important if you can't put them to work. >> i'm happy to report what solutions we come up with the next time we meet. >> that would be great. i know ms. salazar retired and we don't have a mediator. my understanding is some of the investigators are supposed to do the mediation, but i understand it's not been happening. they have not been able to do that because of the work load. how are we going to save this mediation program? i've seen it's an award winning mediation process and something that has worked well. i'm just not sure if we've given it to certain investigators with big, heavy caseloads if that will work. >> you are correct.

i will point out the ball has not been dropped and we haven't stopped the mediations. all of the mediations have continued. there was some internal movement about who was going to handle the mediation. it was being handled by senior investigators. we've taken it away from the investigators because caseload didn't allow them to work on both of those things, out of concerns some of the mediations weren't being done. so to make sure the mediations have continued, we've taken them back. sarah hawkins is in charge of the mediations, but again, let me clarify, no mediations were missed or unscheduled while we were making any of these changes although, my goal and objective is to expand that program, especially since it's our highest-rated program in terms of efficiency from the public and support from folks that interact with my agency. >> any other questions? >> thank you. >> any other questions for director anderson? >> thank you. >> i was getting on a roll.

[laughter] >> secretary. >> item 1c commission reports. commission president's report. commissioners report. >> i have no report. any reports? >> secretary killshaw. >> commission announcement and scheduling of items identified for consideration that feature commission meetings action. >> evening commissioners. >> i would like to perhaps schedule, in the future, not immediate, but talk about the youth commission having a representative on the police commission. not for january but maybe late february we can talk about fitting that on the calender. >> so the draft resolution was provided to you? >> yes. >> it's up to the commission and president when to schedule that for. >> ok. >> couple months back, i want to

say maybe decision to eight months ago the commission asked for and you agreed to have a resolution drafted for youth commissioner to come and provide input at the commission meeting. i drafted the resolution, provided it to -- >> where is the draft now? >> i will mention commissioner dejesus has it. i have a copy for you as well. it's up to the commission and you president when to put that on the agenda. >> thank you. >> you realize it was perhaps a draft. >> all right. >> secretary, next secretary. >> we need public comments on items 1a through d. >> public comments on chief's report. commission reports and commission announcements. public comment is now closed.

>> item 3, general public comments. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on tonight's agenda but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. speaker shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department or d.p.a. personnel. under police commissioner rules of order during public comment, neither police or d.p.a. personnel or commissioners are required to respond to questions presented by the public but may provide a brief response. individual commissioners and police and d.p.a. personnel should refrain however, from entering in to any debates or discussions with speakers during public comment. please limit your comments to two minutes. >> public comments. members of the public. >> i respect that. i respect man too so a apologize i came here and i'm thinking i can speak and it wasn't the time

to speak. so forgive me. and ya'll got to understand, i've been around for 20 years. and no one knows commissioner, the commissioner so before all ya'll was here you got to understand, and i'm crystal clear to this city and anybody talking and listening. i'm not here to be advantageous to ya'll, i'm here to deliver a message. and sometimes, people don't like the messenger so i have to learn how to do that. although i'm 63, i got a lot to learn on being out here the way it is today. all i'm trying to illustrate to this city, by by the bay, forgive me if i rhyme that way, i do that instead of cussing and fussing it comes out that way. did that rhyme too? see what i'm saying? i'm here to say crystal clear, my heart goes out to you, sister , i'm at want to crime ya'll don't know the tears.

anyway, sorry. but don't you know, the history is going to be showing. the attitude that people have, he is not even looking at it. back in the process when they had to go about ed taking pictures were here. it seemed like he was unaware i was taking pictures but if you look at it it looks like he wasn't part of what you are doing right there in the history scott, i appreciate you man. history. ya'll all did this and this is good. what i'm here to say, i'm the cz ar of migration whether you like it or not. you are going to hear what i have to say one way or another. the police officer are what we have little class left 10 years ago. thank you, very much. >> thank you. >> any further public comments?

>> ms. brown, would you like to use the overhead? >> yes, i would. >> is the overhead ready? happy new years, everyone. i'm here to talk about my son again. his case is not solved. he was murdered august 14th, 2006. i am still waiting for some answers to his homicide. this is a new year, and august of this year will be 12 years. i just want to say my son existed. he is not a statistic, he is

existed. i was going through some pictures the other day looking for his school pictures at saint dominiques when he first started there. to the last day of his graduation. paying tuition, paying school fees, trying to get grants to have him finish school all to end up with his death. so, i'm saying that -- this is all i have left to remember him. i have a thing from the police association that says where were you when i was murdered? still have no place to put these things except for my house, over

the fireplace or climb on top of my car and put them on top of a pole for someone to tear down. i'm still asking for a venue to put them on the buses, at least back on the buses. put them at the bus station. so the perpetrateers can see their victims and they're still walking the street that murdered my son. something needs to be done about it. thank you. >> thank you. >> further public comments. >> public comments are now closed. >> item 4, public comment on all matters pertaining to items 6 below closed session whether to hold item 6 in closed session. >> i must say chief scott we used to have three minutes and the public used to get up and speak before ya'll go through

all of this, what ya'll are talking about you know. so you got to excuse me because it's been a long time since i've came back here. i came back and the agenda changed and you guys go through ya'll and sit here and wait patiently. >> this is public comment regarding whether or not we can go in to closed session. >> oh. >> you missed that. you were in the ace in the case representation. >> i'm sorry. >> what is a public comment i just popped. >> you are good at it. you didn't sing tonight unfortunately. >> i'm not feeling that way. >> whether or not we go in to closed session. none public comments now closed. >> item 5, vote whether to hold item 6 in closed session including on vote whether to assert the attorney client privilege with item 6b. and c. san francisco administrative code sex -- section 67.1. >> motion to go in to closed session. >> second. >> all in favor. >> thank you, very much.

>> in 2017 we've had the lowest number of fatalities on our streets in our history. we still have a lot of work to do. and doing this work is a team effort. it is of course working with the department of public works and the sfmta to discuss infrastructure i s to make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists who are vulnerable to vehicles often times sadly going too fast. we're working with the san francisco police department, doing everything we can to crackdown on those individuals speeding and breaking the law and doing things that could create these kinds of accidents.

no one wants to see the accidents on the side of the road, no one wants to experience going to a crime scene on the road knowing your loved one has been hit by a car or sadly tragically killed. i remember years ago on turk street and laguna, when a lot of us were hanging out and just kind of enjoying the weather, it was a really nice hot time, like in the fall and my god son was crossing the street on turk at the intersection of turk and buchanan where there's no stoplight and he was hit by a car. we watched as you flew in the air and thought oh my god, oh my god, just to see it, and had no control over what was going to happen was devastating. and luckily he had minor injuries, luckily he survived, and i just really felt strongly,

we have to do better as a city. we have to do better with the vehicles that are speeding on our streets. we have to do better with our infrastructures and when people push back on me about the improvements and bike infrastructure and all of those things we need to do, we have to make our roads safe. it's not about catering to a particular group. there are a lot of the bicyclists riding in our city, there's a lot of pedestrians walking in the city, we have to make sure that people know this is where bicyclists ride, this is where pedestrians walk, this is where vehicles are supposed to be, so that everyone behaves responsibly on the road and knows the infrastructure, it helps them to understand exactly where everyone is supposed to be. our ultimate goal is public safety. we want everyone to be safe on our roads and everyone to make it home to their loved ones at the end of the night and that what this is about, this is

about a team effort, working with our mta, the police department, department of public health, department of public works and families for safe streets, this is how we're going to change the behavior of what's happening on our roads and get to the zero, the vision zero that we are promising san francisco. this is an important thing we must all participate in. so, again, i just want to emphasize that i have been in constant contact with the chief because enforcement, enforcement is going to play a key role in helping us address those issues. pulling over those vehicles running stop signs, pulling over the bicyclists who are sometimes doing the wrong thing, if you are breaking the law on our street, then there will be consequences for that behavior. it's not because the city wants to add another layer of

bureaucracy or ticket you or collect that money, it's because we want to make sure that people change their behavior so that they're safe on our streets. that's what this is about. this is about bringing the number of 20 in 2017 down to zero. we don't want another death on our streets because of human error, because of anything we can avoid. if we change our behavior, we change our roads and do a better job here in the city and county of san francisco. thank you all for being here. we have so much more work to do, but we are moving forward and working together to really make sure that vision zero is a reality and not just a dream. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. i think what you heard there is leadership of vision zero is not always easy. it can entail making decisions

that are not always popular and there's always trade-offs when talking about redesigning streets and enforcing laws and that kind of leadership we have from mayor breed and the whole board of supervisors and we're joined by supervisor jeff sheehy who has been strongly behind the difficult decisions we have to make, that's the kind of leadership we need. and the board of directors legislating the changes and faced with the trade-offs but willing to move forward with things that will get us to zero. as mayor breed mentioned, enforcement is an important part of it. a part of ed lee approach to vision zero, there's not just one tool in the tool kit. it's not just about street design. it's not just about education, it's not just about enforcement. it's about a collection of activities we can do together as city and community to drive

fatalities to zero. the rules of the road are there to keep people safe, and the work that the police department has done in support of vision zero with direction from previous and current mayor, is a big part of the story of what we're seeing out on the streets in terms of success with regards to vision zero. welcome our chief of police bill scott. (applause) >> thank you. good morning everybody. i'd like to echo director and acting mayor breed comments, you know, when i first learned about vision zero in 2013 it did seem like a dream. we were not only in san francisco but in other parts of the country because many other cities embarked on a vision zero initiative.

it did seem like a dream but now four years into this and we have made significant progress in reducing the amount of traffic fatalities, that dream is becoming a reality. and i think it's very much within our reach to actually realize that vision of zero traffic fatalities in our city. before i go any further, when we talked about the numbers and the statistics and the fact that the numbers are down and the statistics are down, i don't think it's lost on any of us that those numbers represent human lives and the families here today that have the courage to keep this on the forefront of our conscious, i thank you for being here. i know it's very painful to keep having to relive the loss of a loved one by way of a traffic fatality. thank you for being here today. from the perspective of the san francisco police department, our role is enforcement and also education. any time we have a traffic violation and we engage in a

traffic stop or come in contact with a motorist or pedestrian or bicyclist, we have an opportunity to educate and that opportunity to educate is really probably one of the most important things we can do. enforcement is very important but education is even more important. this year in san francisco, we issued over 38,000 citations and i don't say that to brag, unfortunately that's 38,000 plus people that have violated the law. however, it's also 38,000 contacts that we had the opportunity to educate people about really the impact of some of the violations that are more likely to cause traffic accidents. and our officers really take that work seriously. it's an opportunity to share stories about people that have lost loved ones and probably everybody in the room has a

story. mayor breed told one that was compelling and i have one and many of you have their own. but when our officers engage in enforcement, it's more than enforcement. it's education. it's preventing these terrible acts from occurring by putting it on the forefront of people's minds when they violate the law. i want to go through a couple of things of how we intend from the police department's perception to realize the vision. our captains coordinate efforts with patrol officers and our traffic unit on the enforcement. we work carefully with mta to use data to determine which intersections and corridors are more likely to have accidents and that's one of the ways we focus on those particular streets and intersections.

the five violations that cause, speeding, running stop signs, failure to yield to pedestrians, failure to yield to turns, running red lights. those are the violations most likely to cause fatalities. this year there were 20 fatalities, 14 involved pedestrians. my ask of the public is number one, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of the laws, be aware of street signals. be aware of crosswalks and try to work within the laws designed to keep you safe. it is really important that this effort be a partnership, not only with law enforcement but partnership between the community. if you follow the laws, you have much less of a chance of becoming involved in a fatality. that is particularly important with pedestrians. just the laws of physics. it takes a little while for

2,000 pound or 3,000 pound vehicle to stop. physics is going to win every time. if you pay attention, if you follow the laws you have less of a chance of getting involved in these type of incidents. for the elderly in the community, it's more important. a majority of our traffic related fatalities involve elderly. people can't get across the street as fast, they may not hear as well as some other members of the community. so for our elderly, let's pay attention. let's help them in terms of paying attention to our roadways when we are driving and bicycling, that is a huge issue in our city. our outreach is a huge priority and again we use traffic stops as a way of outreach but we also have many public campaigns to remind drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists of their

responsibilities when they are often the roadways. the partnership we talk about between the mta, city government, board of supervisors, fire department, the department of public health, it really is a team effort to realize the vision of zero fatalities. i remind you, look at where we were and where we are. this vision will be a reality, it will be a reality and we'll work together to make that happen. i thank you for your time. families thank you for being here and remember, vision zero is about all of us. thank you. (applause) >> thank you chief. the chief made reference that back in 2013 it seemed not a very realistic goal and we were one of the first cities in the country, i think perhaps only new york had adopted vision zero

and now it's more common term and many more cities have adopted it. back then one of the things we started doing differently from the transportation standpoint, thinking of it as a public health issue and not just public safety issue. with the leadership of department of public health is a large part of why we are where we are, taking that view of the issues not just street design or enforcement view, i think has been a game changer for us here in san francisco. we're grateful to be able to co-lead between sfmta and department of public health and joined on behalf of public health director garcia and chief medical director argon. (applause) >> good morning everyone. first of all i want to thank acting mayor breed for being

here today and being behind this vision zero, which is really important to the department of public health. i was born and raised in san francisco. i grew up in the mission district. i live in glenn park, i raised three children and my wife is a first grade teacher. we have been dealing with the issue of traffic and pedestrian safety all of our lives. and i can tell you that what's happened in 2017 is a big accomplishment. if you just walk outside and you see the volume of people, the volume of cars all the activity, and the fact that we are down in terms of the number of deaths is a huge accomplishment. it's a huge accomplishment and i think everyone should really take pride in that. the other thing to realize is for every person that dies, there's a dozen who were severely injured.

so think of it as a pyramid. the whole pyramid is getting smaller. again, that's a big accomplishment. we all have to remember that all of us, all of us every single day no matter how you get to work, school, wherever you go, all of us are always pedestrians. this is really -- this impacts all of us. from a public health issue, one of the side effects of having pedestrian safety is that it really promotes community health. it allows people to walk more, to bike more, to do what we call in public health, active transportation and this is really good. it's promoting health in other ways, reducing people's stress as they feel they can take a walk in the neighborhood and feel safe while getting healthy. and i also just want to acknowledge the clinicians and workers at san francisco general hospital working 24/7 so when

someone gets injured, we have a team of people part of the city family who are the best in the world of taking care of the patients who are injured. the last thing i want to say is for us in public health, everybody coming together, working together, this way, this collective action, this collective impact, to us that's the best way to do public health and we're very excited. we have a lot of great staff, please visit visionzero.sf. you can read about our collaborative success. again, thank you so much. (applause) >> thank you dr. argon. to echo the praise for the folks at the san francisco general hospital, i heard a stat a couple years ago, i don't know if it's 100% accurate but nearly

half of the admittance are from traffic issues. you think of the first responders who bring the folks there and the impact it has on the system, it gives you the scope of the impact of traffic safety in san francisco beyond what we're talking about here today. the folks on the front line are largely from the police department, the first responders to the scene and it's not just fatalities but 200 or so people who are seriously injured each year in san francisco. so the fire department plays a critical role in getting people to the trauma center to be helped as quickly as possible. i want to acknowledge and ask to say a few words our fire chief. (applause). >> good morning.

thank you for being here. i wanted to comment on the alignment around vision zero and acknowledge the progress being made and has been said by many speakers before me, one death is one too many. we come some times from different angles but the san francisco fire department is fully committed. the men and women of the san francisco fire department are some of the first responders to the difficult scenes. we experience the emotion and have the conversations with the families and i want to acknowledge the families here that have lost loved ones due to traffic collisions and fatalities related to our congested city. and it is worth noting as dr. argon noted, in a city whose population is rising, there's more vehicles and pedestrians and bicycles on the street, to have a reduction is significant

but there's more work to do. there are three prongs i believe are part of vision zero, the education poliiece that the pol department has a role in. it is important to be alert and aware at all times. i know as a pedestrian, i'm the mother of three boys, one of the things i say, try to gain the eye contact with the driver and don't assume because you have a green light or ability to walk across that it will be safe. so awareness is a key factor. our role is one of education as well. we have the contacts to support the family, enforcement obviously, the police department does very capably. i would like to touch on the engineering piece, the mta does a great job in engineering and reengineering our streets, we sit regularly with the mta, sometimes it's looked at as a

competing interest, we want to as first responders be able to navigate to the scene of an emergency in a timely fashion but one of the things we heard loud and clear and i have seen, and we have worked closely with the city administrator's office, we have taken bold steps, not always popular in my department but bold steps to shrink the responding apparatus. very proud that just last year we took delivery of eight new fire engines with a smaller profile, easier to maneuver and increased visibility for the drivers to make us safer as first responders and more responsive to the vision zero goals. i have driven the engines and they're more responsive in the city streets. we're piloting two new

ambulances, they work different, we're hoping to work with our members to get them on board to take a look at a smaller ambulance as well. i drove that yesterday and it's much more user friendly through our narrow streets. we're hoping from an engineering perspective as part of vision zero to be very responsive to the size of our apparatus to be able to continue to fulfill our goals of saving lives and property but also be responsive to our growing population and many different varieties of pedestrians, bicyclists, cars and public transportation on the street. so thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you chief. from the executive branch and other government agencies, department of public works, one of our main partners and public utilities commission, planning department with the unified

school district, dozens of other agencies all working together. and i want to invite up some of our community partners, but before i do that, the bridge between the executive branch or one of the important bridges between the executive branch and our community are the elected officials that represent the community, our board of supervisors represent the citizens, businesses, schools, institutions in their district and that bridge is important to us in terms of feeding the community voice to inform what we're doing and as i said earlier, it requires great leadership and sometimes great courage on the behalf of individual members of the board of supervisors to support the work that can be controversial but ultimately is important and necessary for us to get to zero. one of the great champions of that, district eight supervisor jeff sheehy. i want to ask him to say a few words. (applause)

>> thank you. and i think this has been said, but i really do think that it is time to reflect on mayor lee's legacy. this is tremendous. we're here today recognizing the lowest level of fatalities because of the leadership of mayor lee. i think of his understated way of leading our city, the way he has brought our departments together and i do think once again we should think about this as an important piece of his legacy. and i want to commend mayor breed for her leadership on the board, as ed ruskin mentioned, through the work on the board and enormous amount of feedback we get when the changes come into our neighborhoods, the ability to work collaboratively with the executive branch and agencies has been key.

so mayor breed's leadership first as board president has been essential for this and going forward we'll continue to push the numbers down. i'm grateful for her leadership. i know for me personally i focused on bike safety and i hope the next year brings significant improvement, getting protected bike lanes so people can bike around. i think of my daughter, 12-year-old public school kid, we bop around all over town, pedestrian safety is critical. school starts again on monday, so i hope as you are reporting today you will encourage people to slow down, to be mindful, to recognize that you're going to have more cars on the street on monday, more kids on bikes, more kids walking and that's one of the great things that the transportation authority has been supportive of and mta,

getting kids to get to school without necessarily having to be in a vehicle and the education for kids on public transportation and walking and biking and walking school buses is an innovation that is great that i have seen folks in my neighborhood implement. if we could be mindful monday that kids are going back to school, not a lot of them are going to be happy about it. you're going to have grumpy kids dragging their feet and be slow and mindful. thank you. (applause) >> great messages, which i hope you will help us convey. two of the leading voices that challenge us are walk san francisco and san francisco bicycle coalition. everybody, whether you live here, visiting here, work here, everybody starts or ends their trip on foot. we're all pedestrians.

and bicycling is the fastest growing mode of transportation in san francisco. you are more vulnerable road users traveling in those ways. i want to welcome walk san francisco and executive director from the san francisco bicycle coalition. >> thank you director ruskin. how did you know my speech would be do more, do better, do faster. i don't have to say anything. in all seriousness, we're here to acknowledge the good news of 2017. i think after 2017 we could all use some good news. not only did the total deaths on our streets from traffic collisions decrease dramatically in 2017 but pedestrian deaths decreased as well. since 2013, every single year fewer pedestrians have been killed on our streets. this is really good news. of course this good news does not mean that we're all here today to pat ourselves on the

back and move on. 20 lives lost is too many. and so each of the lives lost needs to be a call of action to everyone here to do better. no family should get a phone call that their loved one is in the hospital or their love one worse has been killed due to crashes we know are preventable. people talking in san francisco and so many folks have said this today, every one of us here shouldn't have to put their lives on the line walking down the street. in san francisco, low income communities, people of color, immigrants and seniors are more likely to be killed in crashes and we need that to change. seniors should be able to grow old in our city. instead, they're the most likely group to be killed in crashes. these crashes, make no mistake, they're not accidents, they're predictable and that means they're preventable and that's

why the city has invested a tremendous amount of funding policy into vision zero since 2014 and which we're extremely grateful for and why we're here today. at the same time, we need to do better. to get to zero, there's the better part director ruskin, to get to zero, we need to step our game up a little bit. we have six years. we need to increase investments in safe streets and get projects into the ground more quickly, before more people get hurt and pass automated speed enforcement in san francisco. city community, advocates, families, i believe working together we'll reach zero by 2024. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. on behalf of the san francisco bicycle coalition, i'm the

executive director and our 10,000 members, i want to thank many people here, mayor breed, supervisor sheehy, director ruskin, chief scott and his wife and all the other departments who have worked to draw attention toward the progress on vision zero. in 2014 with pressure and leadership from many of the organizations and individuals here today, san francisco officially adopted the ambitious goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries from our street. the bold commitment will be one of the endearing legacies of mayor ed lee. i know he believed in achieving vision zero. he cared deeply about the safety of people walking and biking in our city and followed through by directing city agencies to deliver infrastructure improvements with the speed and urgency necessary. we owe it to mayor lee's memory

to remain just as urgently focused on delivering safer streets faster. in 2017, san francisco proved to the nation that progress toward an ambitious goal like vision zero is possible. because of that progress, 10 people are alive today. 10 people are biking and walking to work. 10 people are waiting for muni and 10 people are coming home today to their families. and i want to recognize alvin and san francisco bay area families for safe streets, those who have lost their loved ones for being here and continually sharing their stories. we're here to acknowledge progress but also to recommit ourselves to vision zero. we have to work harder, even harder moving forward if we want 2017 to be the beginning of the trend and not just an aberration. while we saw significant decreases in fatalities for people, and in particular people in