Why Doesn’t The SFPD Investigate All Traffic Collisions?

In the early 1990’s, the City and County of San Francisco along with its police department instituted General Order 9.02 that instructed officers of the San Francisco Police Department, that they need not investigate “non-injury” traffic collisions. The San Francisco Police Department established this policy even though the City, like every jurisdiction in this state, is strongly encouraged to investigate both “injury” and “non-injury” traffic collisions by the State of California as outlined in the California Highway Patrol Manual:

“The purpose of this manual is to establish policy and uniform procedures for documenting motor vehicle collision with the framework of SWITRS and the Vehicle Code (VC). VC Section 20008 requires that all law enforcement agencies forward to the California Highway Patrol, a copy of every traffic collision report involving injury or death. Although there is no legal requirement to submit Property Damage Only reports, agencies are encouraged to do so. Collision documentation is the foundation for any effective traffic safety program. To attain a reduction in the frequency and severity of traffic collisions, it is important that the information exchanged among users be identical in definition and type of data.” [California Highway Patrol Manual, HPM 110.5, pg. ii]

If collision documentation is the foundation for any effective traffic safety program, why doesn’t the San Francisco Board of Supervisors instruct the SFPD to start investigating all traffic collisions? Wouldn’t this help the City’s traffic engineers discover the most dangerous intersections so that they may be fixed? Wouldn’t this make pedestrians more safe?

The process of rejecting or “disposing” of “non-injury” accidents through the implementation of General Order 9.02 at the dispatch level needs to stop.