AGENDA REPORT. Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council

Transcription

1 AGENDA REPORT Meeting Date: November 6, 2012 Agenda Item # City Manager Approval: TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council FROM: Paul Nanfito, Chief of Police SUBJECT: Executive Summary for the conclusion of the Office of Traffic Safety Grant Program. RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION: Receive the Executive Summary for the end of the traffic program that was funded by the State of California, Office of Traffic Safety. SUMMARY: More than a year ago we were awarded a comprehensive grant from the Office of Traffic Safety. This grant funded one full-time police officer position, a new motorcycle, other misc equipment and overtime for a comprehensive traffic enforcement program. This traffic program began on October 1, 2011 and concluded on September 30, 2012.

2 PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION: The City Council previously approved and accepted the grant application and funds from the Office of Traffic Safety. DISCUSSION: The attached Executive Summary provides a detail overview of the year-long program. The overall results of the program are listed on page #5 of the report. However, the following highlights of the final results clearly demonstrate the success of the program and of having a full-time traffic enforcement officer. The information below show decreases between the grant period and the comparison base year (2010). Please note the following: 11% reduction in total traffic injury victims. 21% reduction in alcohol involved injuries. An incredible 46% decrease in injury collisions at intersections. Most notably there was an 83% reduction in injuries resulting from collisions involving red light running. Finally, there was an overall drop in the number of collisions during the grant period; 377 vs. 432 collision during the base comparison year of 2010, which is a reduction of 13%.

3 The Executive Summary provides a great summary of the traffic program and how these results were achieved. CITY FISCAL IMPACT: The grant amount was for $139, for which the City of Red Bluff was eligible for reimbursement. ATTACHMENTS: OTS Traffic Grant Program Executive Summary The City of Red Bluff is an Equal Opportunity Employer

4 State of California Office of Traffic Safety EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EGRANTS INSTRUCTIONS OTS-31b (New 10/12) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Grant is a part of the California Traffic Safety Program and was made possible through the support of the California Office of Traffic Safety, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the State of California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. AGENCY NAME: CITY OF RED BLUFF POLICE DEPARTMENT EGRANTS ID NO.: EGRANT TITLE: Selective Traffic Enforcement Program JURISDICTION TYPE AND SIZE: City, Population 14,105 TOTAL AMOUNT FUNDED: $139, EGRANT PERIOD: 10/01/2011 to 09/30/2012

5 EGRANT DESCRIPTION: To reduce the number of persons killed and injured in crashes involving alcohol, speed, red light running, and other primary collision factors, best practice strategies will be conducted by hiring fulltime traffic enforcement personnel supported by operations conducted on an overtime basis. The funded strategies may include: DUI / driver license checkpoints, DUI saturation patrols, HOT Sheet program and court stings. The program may also concentrate on speed, aggressive driving, seat belt enforcement, intersection operations with disproportionate numbers of traffic crashes and special enforcement operations encouraging motorcycle safety. These strategies are designed to earn media attention thus enhancing the overall deterrent effect. I. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION During 2002/2003 the Department maintained one (1) officer assigned to traffic enforcement; during the 2003/2004 fiscal year this dropped to one (1) officer assigned to traffic enforcement approximately 50% of the time. During the ten years prior (to 2003) the Department maintained one to two officers assigned to traffic enforcement. The Department has not had a full-time traffic officer since Our patrol officers have a collateral duty assignment of traffic enforcement but this has been ineffective due to the

6 volume of calls for service coupled with the loss of four (4) full-time, permanent police officer positions, due to budget cuts. Both the 2008 and 2009 State Wide Integrated Traffic Reporting System (SWTRS) reports have listed Red Bluff as being in the top ten worst injury and fatal collision rates for cities in our category. The 2008 SWTRS report ranked the City of Red Bluff 9 of 101 cities, and the 2009 SWTRS report ranked the City of Red Bluff 4 of 102. The number one ranking in this system is indicative of the worst accident rate per population category. Also noteworthy is that on the 2009 OTS collision rankings the City of Red Bluff ranked number 1 of 102 cities in three categories; collisions involving alcohol, collisions involving pedestrians age 15 and younger, and collisions involving bicyclists age 15 and younger. It is readily apparent based on this data that the lack of a traffic officer has led to detrimental results with respect to collision rates and traffic safety in the City of Red Bluff. II. GOAL The following is a list of the goals listed in this grant: To reduce the number of persons killed in traffic collisions. To reduce the number of persons injured in traffic

7 collisions. To reduce the number of persons killed in alcoholinvolved collisions. To reduce the number of persons injured in alcohol-involved collisions. To reduce the number of persons killed in drug involved collisions. To reduce the number of persons injured in drug involved collisions. To reduce the number of motorcyclists killed in traffic collisions. To reduce the number of motorcyclists injured in traffic collisions. To reduce the number of motorcyclists killed in alcohol-involved collisions. To reduce the number of motorcyclists injured in alcohol-involved collisions. To reduce hit & run fatal collisions. To reduce hit & run injury collisions. To reduce nighttime ( hours) fatal collisions. To reduce nighttime ( hours) injury collisions. To reduced fatal collisions involving red light runners. To reduce injury collisions involving red light runners. To reduce fatal collisions at intersections.

8 To reduce injury collisions at intersections. To reduce fatal collisions where unsafe speed was the primary collision factor. To reduce injury collisions where unsafe speed was the primary collision factor. To increase seat belt use. III. OBJECTIVES There were a total of twenty nine objectives in this grant. The following is an abbreviated account of each objective indicated in this grant: To issue a press release announcing the kick-off of the grant. To send all grant-related activity press releases and general public materials to the OTS Public Information Officer (PIO). A draft press release must first be sent to the OTS PIO for approval unless an OTS template based press release is utilized. To use the following language in all press, media and printed materials: Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To issue a press release prior to each motorcycle safety enforcement operation to raise awareness about motorcycle safety in general.

9 To the OTS PIO and Coordinator 30 days in advance of any significant grant related traffic safety event or program. To submit a draft of all printed or recorded material to the OTS PIO for approval 14 days prior to production. To include the OTS logo on grant funded print materials. To conduct pre and post seatbelt usage rate surveys during the start of the grant and end of the grant. To develop and maintain an Hot Sheet program to notify patrol and traffic officers to be on the lookout for repeat DUI offenders with a suspended / revoked license as a result of DUI convictions. To send 2 supervisory and other interested law enforcement personnel to the OTS sponsored DUI Checkpoints Planning and Management course. To establish all grant-funded positions and train staff on defined roles and duties by December 31, To conduct Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) training for 4 officers. To send 2 law enforcement personnel to the NHTSA Advances Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) training. To submit a California Law Enforcement Challenge application to CHP.

10 To report the procurement status of all equipment planned to be purchased as part of this grant. To conduct 6 DUI / Drivers License Checkpoints. To conduct 12 DUI Saturation Patrols. To conduct 4 highly publicized Motorcycle Safety enforcement operations. To track the number of DUID reports submitted to the District attorney. To report the number of DUID reports returned to law enforcement where the District Attorney s Office declined to issue DUID charges against the suspect. To develop a tracking system that can track DUID report submissions and rejections. To conduct 12 enforcement operations targeting red light running. To conduct 12 enforcement operations at or near intersections with a disproportionate number of traffic collisions. To conduct 12 enforcement operations targeting drivers exhibiting excessive speed. To conduct 3 Court Sting operations to cite individuals driving from court after having their license suspended or revoked. To increase the police department s enforcement index 2 percentage points from 5. To increase total department-wide seat belt citations as a percent of total hazardous or moving

11 citations issues 4 percentage points from To collaborate with the county s Avoid Coalitions by participating in meetings and MADD/Avoid DUI Seminars and reporting during holiday Avoid efforts to the county Avoid Coordinator for the Avoid media campaign. To submit in a timely manner all statistical data, financial reimbursement claims, and quarterly performance reports throughout the grant period. IV. STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES Our strategy to make this program successful started with the selection of a full-time dedicated traffic officer, an assignment this department had not had for many years. We determined it would be critically important to program success to sufficiently train the selected traffic officer so he could function at an appropriate level. We chose to spend much of the first quarter of the grant period providing training to the selected officer. During this time the traffic officer spent 136 hours in training courses such as Motorcycle Operations, Radar / Lidar, DUI / SFST, and the OTS DUI Checkpoint Planning and Management course. This training set the stage for the traffic officer to be successful in his role and thus make this program a success.

12 Another point in our strategy was to have the traffic officer as visible to the public as possible. Citizens in the City of Red Bluff were not used to seeing a traffic officer on a police motorcycle and it was felt the visibility of the motorcycle would have a potential deterrent effect, particularly if the motorcycle was seen often throughout the City. Toward this end, we chose to occasionally deploy a second police motorcycle with a former traffic officer to increase the visibility of this program within the community. Unfortunately, our program was dealt a blow when the traffic officer resigned midway through the grant period and the investment in training this person was lost. There was no time to waste in selecting a replacement traffic officer to continue this program and make it successful. Therefore, a sergeant who was a former traffic officer was administratively assigned as the traffic officer to complete the program. The sergeant was removed from his ordinary duties for approximately six months to fulfill the traffic officer role on a fulltime basis. This allowed us to have a seamless transition as the sergeant previously had the same training provided the former traffic officer and only needed local refresher training. There were a number of significant activities contributing to the success of this program. For example, after not having a DUI checkpoint for quite

13 some time in the City of Red Bluff, this grant allowed us to complete six DUI / DL Checkpoints within a 12 month period. This was a visible reminder of the problems associated with DUI and raised community awareness in this critical area both through each event as well as the associated press releases that came before and after. Other significant activities contributing to the success of this program included the enforcement operations that allowed two or more officers to focus on specific traffic related problems. Without the overtime funding source from this grant, we would not have been able to provide staff to focus on operations enforcing speed violations, red light running, or focusing on intersections identified as having disproportionate collision rates. In fact, the initiation of this grant was the impetus for identifying which intersections within the City of Red Bluff had the highest collision rates. These were the intersections at which enforcement operations were typically focused. Court stings focusing on catching drivers with suspended licenses was new to the City of Red Bluff and this grant afforded us the ability to conduct three such stings with overtime funding. In addition to catching offenders, these operations were intended to bring community awareness through press releases to the fact that officers were seeking offenders driving

14 with a suspended license and the hope was that this would result in a deterrent effect. V. RESULTS It is challenging to make dramatic improvements in traffic safety throughout an entire community in a single year. However, based on the majority of the statistical data, it appears having this grant has contributed to an overall improvement in traffic related safety within the City of Red Bluff. For example, there was an 11% reduction in total traffic injury victims during the grant period in comparison to the base year (2010). Alcohol involved injuries also saw an overall reduction of 21% while injury collisions at intersections saw a drastic decrease of approximately 46%. Most notably, injuries resulting from collisions involving red light running dropped by almost 83%. Unfortunately, injury collisions due to speed remained the same as the base year period as did motorcycle injury victims. Finally, the quantity of collisions during the grant period totaled 377 compared to 432 during the comparable base year, which is a reduction of almost 13%. As previously mentioned, this grant allowed for six DUI / DL Checkpoints. As a result, 1546 drivers were contacted at checkpoints during this grant period. Presumably, others also saw the checkpoints but did

15 not drive through it. Having these checkpoints and the associated press releases brought the concern of DUI to the attention of a large percentage of community members and likely impacted some of the decreases in collision injury rates. These events are exceptionally effective due to their high visibility and the face to face contact citizens have with officers at the checkpoints. One of the greatest accomplishments of this program was to bring traffic related safety awareness to those who drive within the City of Red Bluff. It is believed that having a fulltime dedicated traffic officer for a 12 month period has had a deterrent effect on the community at large. Those driving in the city became aware of the traffic enforcement efforts by seeing the traffic officer stopping others or by noticing him observing traffic near intersections. It is believed the visibility of traffic enforcement activity by the traffic officer and other officers on overtime has caused some drivers to improve their driving habits for fear of receiving a citation for traffic violations. Additionally, by completing a total of 61 special enforcement operations, 27 of which were conducted on an overtime basis, officers were able to focus on specific identified traffic problems throughout the City of Red Bluff. None of these operations would have been possible without the grant and these operations allowed for numerous violators to receive sanctions for violations of vehicle code sections.

16 The impact of the above described activities associated with this grant is anticipated to have an ongoing impact on future traffic safety in the City of Red Bluff for a period of time. While the entire impact is difficult to predict, it is our hope and belief that the efforts and visibility of a fulltime traffic officer will be imbedded in driver s minds and continue an ongoing deterrent effect. To continue the positive impact and effect for the months and years to come it will be important to find a way to continue having a fulltime dedicated traffic officer. Key Contact Name: Kyle Sanders Title: Captain Agency: Red Bluff Police Department Address: 555 Washington Street, Red Bluff, CA Telephone: ksanders@rbpd.org