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03-16-04 Item 1ai CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER INTER- OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor, Vice Mayor and Commission FROM: Maria V. Davis, City Manager SUBJECT: Traffic Enforcement Report DATE: March 10, 2004 Pursuant to Vice Mayor Palmer's request, Chief Martinez has supplied the attached Traffic Enforcement Report. In reading over the report it becomes clear that the available police personnel do an outstanding job of traffic enforcement within the limited person -hours available to them, especially in light of the more serious public safety and property protection responsibilities with which they are tasked. As the report points out, the majority of traffic enforcement is assigned during the peak morning and afternoon "rush hour." There are normally seven officers assigned to a shift, with 4 -5 of those officers working traffic unless and until called away to respond to service calls such as burglaries, assaults, etc. Please pay special attention to the statistics for the month of January for the two motorcycle officers assigned to the traffic unit. Their numbers are impressive and indicative of the dedication and professionalism with which all of our police officers perform their duty. Y R ti City of South Miami Police Department INTER - OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO: Maria V. Davis City Manager FROM: Orlando Martinez d 4C o Chief of Police DATE: 03/04/04 SUBJECT: Traffic Enforcement Report The general guidelines for assigning enforcement of traffic problems is based on citizen complaints, accidents, traffic volume and/or observations made by police officers or staff. Most of our complaints and identified problems occur during morning and afternoon rush hours. The department's practice has been to assign police officers to these areas during the peak problem times as part of their routine daily assignments. This usually equates to 4 -5 officers out of a maximum of 7 being assigned to these areas during morning and afternoon rush hours. The police officers are mandated to conduct enforcement at these locations until they are required to respond to calls for service I.E. burglaries, disturbances, theft etc. For example the month of January 2004 the Uniform Patrol Division: Handled 5,181calls and assignments, issued 1,136 citations, checked 1,609 watch orders, patrolled 17,441 miles, completed 131 field interviews, issued and /or conducted 498 park and walks and crime prevention cards, generated 386 reports, issued 37 traffic promises to appear citations, served 22 arrests warrants and made 45 physical arrests. During this same period the Police Department also responded to 892 calls for police service. The following is a breakdown of some of the calls for service during January 2004: False Alarms: 92 Burglary Residential/Commercial: 9 Thefts: 57 Robbery: 3 Burglary- Vehicle: 22 Assaults/Battery: 16 Grand theft Auto: 3 -2- The police department currently has two officers assigned to the traffic unit. These officers are equipped with police motorcycles with the latest in radar technology. These officers are primarily tasked with enforcement activity and handling accidents and other traffic related calls. But, due to our customer service based approach to provide quick response times to our residents and businesses, these police officers are routinely also used to supplement our minimum staffing requirements and handle other calls for service sometimes not related to traffic. The following statistics were compiled for our motor traffic unit for the same month (January 2004): Traffic Citations Issued: 318 Reports Written: 38 Arrests: 5 It should also be noted that we assign officers routinely to locations for which complaints have been received about traffic concerns and the problem was more perception than reality. A common example of this perception is when congestion or large volumes of cars travel on residential roadways and a vehicle traveling 30 miles per hour appears to be 45 -50 miles per hour to the untrained eye. We routinely employ our traffic trailer to monitor speeds and to, educate drivers and residents alike via a large message board which displays actual speed. Our Police Department also participates in the Community Traffic Safety Team (CTST) and the Dade Chiefs Traffic Safety Committee. These two committees employ resources from different disciplines i.e. engineering, State Attorneys Office, citizens, educators etc. to deal with the on -going concerns of traffic problems within our city and the county. We have also developed inter- agency relationships with agencies through out Miami -Dade County to conduct traffic operations. Just recently we hosted a DUI checkpoint at SW 63 Ave. and South Dixie Highway which involved over 30 officers from different agencies. D.U.I. Checkpoint Activity Report: Arrests - DWLS Citations: NVDL Citations: Other Traffic Citations: Computer Hits: Vehicles Towed: Drugs Impounded: Total Number of Vehicles through Checkpoint: 5 (2 DUI, I Warrant, 2 DWLS) 5 5 121 8 8 2 759 Conclusion: I believe that our Police Department demonstrates a commitment to deal with the traffic concerns of our community. An example of our commitment to service to our residents in dealing with their traffic concerns is the recent complaint made at the March 2, 2004 Commission meeting. The complaint was made about 64 St SW 59 PI and the speeding vehicles during the afternoon rush hour. I had two officers assigned to this location on Wednesday, March 3, 2004 to monitor the problem; based on the officer's report the violations noted at this location were pedestrian in nature, and not attributable to speeding vehicles. I will continue to assign officers to this location to continue to monitor any potential problem.