Twenty roadway deaths this year — only 18 traffic officers
San Jose looking to beef up traffic division amid surge in fatalities
San Jose leaders said Wednesday that the city needs to beef up a woefully understaffed traffic police division by filling vacancies as officials look to quell a monthslong surge in roadway fatalities that puts the city on pace to shatter traffic death records.
The city has filled only 18 of 30 positions budgeted for the traffic enforcement team, Police Chief Anthony Mata said during a news conference March 16, adding that traffic-related deaths continue to outstrip crime-related deaths in recent years.
“I cannot tell you how angry I am that we are not taking traffic enforcement as seriously as we need to,” Council member Dev Davis said during the news conference marking San Jose's 20th traffic death.
Mai Thi Nguyen, 76, was hit while crossing the street earlier this month. “We need to restore the traffic enforcement unit and we need to do it yesterday,” Davis said.
Traffic police staffing was at the center of a spat March 15 when the City Council shot down a proposal by Davis to expand the traffic patrol team beyond 30 officers. Davis said the traffic division is underprioritized, leading to the paltry staffing numbers, and Mayor Sam Liccardo supports filling the current vacancies and preserving any newly budgeted officers for other divisions.
“The first priority is getting to fill vacancies,” Liccardo said March 16. “Because vacant positions don't enforce the law.”
Though the city is seeking more police to enforce speed limits and combat dangerous driving, Mata acknowledged that current traffic patrols end in the early evening even as the majority of traffic deaths occur after dark, according to San Jose city data. The Police Department has not indicated any attempt to shift traffic enforcement to after dark.
In later statements, Davis said the police should be moving their resources to nighttime patrols. “We can't just keep doing it the way we've done because that's the way we've always done it,” Davis said. “We need to react to these
deficiencies.”
With 20 fatalities this year — the majority of them pedestrians — the city is on track to blow past previous roadway death records. The city saw 60 fatalities in 2021, according to a police tally, matching an over two-decade high reached in 2015 and again in 2019. In the previous five years, it typically took until late May or June for San Jose to record 20 roadway deaths.
Along with beefing up traffic patrols, Liccardo said the city is continuing with infrastructure projects to improve pedestrian safety on some of its most dangerous corridors, including Senter Road, where the mayor spoke alongside other officials Wednesday.
Liccardo said reducing traffic fatalities is high on his agenda this year. The
city pledged to eliminate traffic fatalities in 2015 and has not seen success. Later this month, the mayor will be speaking at the Assembly in favor of Assembly Bill 2336, which would authorize a five-year pilot program in San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland to test speed cameras on high-injury streets and school zones.
San Jose also is planning to partner with the Department of Motor Vehicles to photograph people's license plates and mail alerts to speeders, which would not be a ticket but “nudging” drivers to obey the law, Liccardo said.
“We suspect this may be a very effective tool to help parents know exactly what's happening when their teenagers are behind the wheel,” Liccardo said.