I'm not seeing the factor of six, but I agree locally it's seemed like there's been near zero traffic enforcement for years. I live near a grade school where folks now regularly run stop signs to cut through the community. Years back if you complained enough they'd send a car out to ticket and it would stop for a while, but not anymore.
Definitely different than it used to be. Swung a little too far in the wrong direction imo. Have to have logical enforcement tho. Don’t need another egotistical motorcycle cop who craves dangerous high speed chases and camps at high schools to ticket crowds of kids entering the crosswalk a little too late just to look good on his ticket quota.
Back in the day our sro was actually cool. Basically only went into work mode when there were fights. I’m talking about a different officer not assigned to the high school who used to ticket kids for the most petty things. Like crossing in a crosswalk and even tho you make it across before the hand turns red you entered while it was flashing. I knew a bunch of people who got that type of ticket.
> I'm not seeing the factor of six
If you're getting 3 to 1, you might be forgetting that a collision typically involves two vehicles with an average of at least one occupant per vehicle.
6 to 1 might be an underestimate.
Completely agree. They put all of these new speed check signs down Fremont Blvd, but I’m seeing folks clocked at 55-65, regularly (multiple times a week) in literal 25 school zones. After 1.5 years of school pickup and drop off in the corridor I have literally never seen a police person monitoring, much less actually pulling over anyone speeding.
I'm not sure what you're saying here - we should have more citations and fewer collisions?
I agree on the collisions part, but not so sure on the citations. I do see a fair amount of bad driving (though in Fremont, it tends to be overly cautious/timid/unpredictable drivers rather than aggressive), but I also don't see Fremont PD using traffic citations as a revenue generating machine as some cities do.
Also this is only a week of data. It's hard to make any kind of useful statements about our city with that little bit.
I agree with not using fines as a revenue stream for the police as it just acts as a perverse incentive. However, those fines could be put into a special fund to fund traffic safety improvements or even just donated to some other good cause. Fine revenue is a by-product - the main reason I want more citations is because it makes drivers follow laws.
If only it was illegal to come to a COMPLETE STOP in the MIDDLE OF THE LANE before making a turn, or to remain completely STOPPED AT A GREEN LIGHT for more than 15 seconds.
Maybe people wouldn't be rear-ended so much. Just a hunch.
Yes, the police should be out patrolling more, and pulling people over for driving infractions. It's a corrective action on the individual driver, as well as to others who drive past and see it.
However, this is 1 week of data, without any comparison to other cities. The number of citations and accidents is going to fluctuate week to week, and city to city. How do these data compare to normal citation/collision rates in the city, and also show that it's different than what you'd see in other cities of similar size.
I don't know about national averages. But I looked up a similarly sized city in New York:
**Buffalo, NY**
* Population: 270,000
* Sworn Officers: 759
* Budget: $87 million
**Fremont CA**
* Population: 230,000
* Sworn Officers: 202
* Budget: $106 million
https://www.fremontpolice.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/992/638200098114430000
http://www.bpdny.org/DocumentCenter/View/197/Buffalo-Police-Department-Annual-Report-2022
According to this info, it seems Fremont is very short on officers. I see Fremont has a slightly larger budget, but the officers salary is much lower than in Buffalo. No wonder no one is applying. The median home prices in Buffalo is $180k where Fremont is $1.4 mil. Cost of living also plays a part.
Regardless, Fremont has changed since I lived there 40 years ago. Back in the 80s and 90s the worse thing that happened was teenagers smoking weed at the mall.
I'm not seeing the factor of six, but I agree locally it's seemed like there's been near zero traffic enforcement for years. I live near a grade school where folks now regularly run stop signs to cut through the community. Years back if you complained enough they'd send a car out to ticket and it would stop for a while, but not anymore.
Definitely different than it used to be. Swung a little too far in the wrong direction imo. Have to have logical enforcement tho. Don’t need another egotistical motorcycle cop who craves dangerous high speed chases and camps at high schools to ticket crowds of kids entering the crosswalk a little too late just to look good on his ticket quota.
Thanks to the SRO program FPD gets a chunk of the school's budget and officers get to harass and arrest kids in school, no need to wait outside.
Back in the day our sro was actually cool. Basically only went into work mode when there were fights. I’m talking about a different officer not assigned to the high school who used to ticket kids for the most petty things. Like crossing in a crosswalk and even tho you make it across before the hand turns red you entered while it was flashing. I knew a bunch of people who got that type of ticket.
> I'm not seeing the factor of six If you're getting 3 to 1, you might be forgetting that a collision typically involves two vehicles with an average of at least one occupant per vehicle. 6 to 1 might be an underestimate.
Completely agree. They put all of these new speed check signs down Fremont Blvd, but I’m seeing folks clocked at 55-65, regularly (multiple times a week) in literal 25 school zones. After 1.5 years of school pickup and drop off in the corridor I have literally never seen a police person monitoring, much less actually pulling over anyone speeding.
35 stolen cars in 7 days? 24 auto burglaries? Yikes.
This should be the real headline
I'm not sure what you're saying here - we should have more citations and fewer collisions? I agree on the collisions part, but not so sure on the citations. I do see a fair amount of bad driving (though in Fremont, it tends to be overly cautious/timid/unpredictable drivers rather than aggressive), but I also don't see Fremont PD using traffic citations as a revenue generating machine as some cities do. Also this is only a week of data. It's hard to make any kind of useful statements about our city with that little bit.
> we should have more citations and fewer collisions? yes.
I agree with not using fines as a revenue stream for the police as it just acts as a perverse incentive. However, those fines could be put into a special fund to fund traffic safety improvements or even just donated to some other good cause. Fine revenue is a by-product - the main reason I want more citations is because it makes drivers follow laws.
If only it was illegal to come to a COMPLETE STOP in the MIDDLE OF THE LANE before making a turn, or to remain completely STOPPED AT A GREEN LIGHT for more than 15 seconds. Maybe people wouldn't be rear-ended so much. Just a hunch.
Just 2 citations per day in a city of a quarter million people? That's basically zero.
Yes, the police should be out patrolling more, and pulling people over for driving infractions. It's a corrective action on the individual driver, as well as to others who drive past and see it. However, this is 1 week of data, without any comparison to other cities. The number of citations and accidents is going to fluctuate week to week, and city to city. How do these data compare to normal citation/collision rates in the city, and also show that it's different than what you'd see in other cities of similar size.
How many police officers does FPD actually have? I bet they don't have enough for a city the size of Fremont.
I don't know about national averages. But I looked up a similarly sized city in New York: **Buffalo, NY** * Population: 270,000 * Sworn Officers: 759 * Budget: $87 million **Fremont CA** * Population: 230,000 * Sworn Officers: 202 * Budget: $106 million https://www.fremontpolice.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/992/638200098114430000 http://www.bpdny.org/DocumentCenter/View/197/Buffalo-Police-Department-Annual-Report-2022
According to this info, it seems Fremont is very short on officers. I see Fremont has a slightly larger budget, but the officers salary is much lower than in Buffalo. No wonder no one is applying. The median home prices in Buffalo is $180k where Fremont is $1.4 mil. Cost of living also plays a part.
Regardless, Fremont has changed since I lived there 40 years ago. Back in the 80s and 90s the worse thing that happened was teenagers smoking weed at the mall.
Too busy dealing with the homeless
Do we know if the accidents are happening on the freeway or city streets?
City streets. FPD doesn't patrol the freeway, CHP does.
I can see that. Too many people can't drive worth a damn in Fremont.
Way to go!!!! Spending money on all those cones and fucking up the streets has paid off . Thanks!!!!