On September 25, 2025, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee, chaired by Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud, convened a hearing to assess traffic enforcement and street safety in San Francisco. The meeting featured presentations from the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and the Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), public testimony, and committee discussion focused on declining citation rates, staffing challenges, and the role of automated enforcement technologies.
Good morning, everyone. This meeting will come to order. Welcome to the September 25th, 2025 regular meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I'm Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud, Vice Chair of this committee, and I'll be chairing today's committee in light of Chair Dorsey's absence. Today I'm joined by Supervisor Sauter and President Mandelman. Our ever-capable clerk today is Monique Creighton, whom we thank for staffing us today. And together we'd like to express our gratitude to Matthew Ignau and the entire team at SFGov TV for facilitating and broadcasting today's meeting. Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes. Members, uh, excuse me. Please make sure to install cell phones and electronic devices documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. First, you may email them to myself, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee Clerk at M-O-N-I-Q-U-E. C-R-A-Y-T-O-N at SFGOV.org. Or you may submit your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall. Number one, Dr. Carlton, be good place, room 244, San Francisco, California 94102. Finally, if you submit public comment in writing, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file on which you are commenting. Before we begin, I'd like to uh clerk make a motion to excuse Chair Dorsey from today's meeting. Yes, and on the motion to excuse Chair Dorsey. Member Mandelman. Member Mandelman, aye. Member Sauter? Member Sauter, aye. Vice Chair Mahmood. Aye. Vice Chairman Mood. I have three ayes with uh with Chair Dorsey excused. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, will you please call the first item? Yes, the first item is a hearing on the state of traffic enforcement and street safety in San Francisco. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, I want to start by recognizing President Mandelman, who first called for this hearing back in 2018, and to thank him for keeping the spotlight on this issue. Since then, we've continued to see the same troubling pattern uh on the trend of traffic enforcement uh declining year after year as staffing in the police department has fallen short. People often ask me, what would it mean to actually have a fully staffed police department again? And my answer is simple. It means officers once again on our streets enforcing the basic rules of the road, including speeding. That return to visibility and accountability is what our neighbors are asking for, and what we are here to discuss today. And with that, President Manelman, the floor is yours. Uh thank you, Vice Chair Mahmoud, and um thank you, Supervisor Sauter. I want to thank also Supervisor Cheryl, who um is also a co-sponsor for this hearing. Um and uh yes, as uh as you indicated, um, this is a long time conversation indeed. Even before I joined the board, um uh supervisors were having hearings on traffic enforcement. Um that 2018 hearing was actually um called for by Supervisor Feuer, I think, and I I joined her. Um, and even in 2018, we could see uh a very significant decline from 2014 levels. I think in 2014, 129,597 citations were issued. Um that number by 2022, notwithstanding our hearings had gone down to 4,006.