dSan Diego County is located at the southernmost corner of California, and is the second largest county in the State. Covering approximately 2,727,040 acres (4,261 square miles), San Diego County is on the Pacific coast and also makes up part of the U.S. border with Mexico. It has a diverse population which the U.S. Census Bureau estimated was 2,766,123 in 1998, up from a 1990 total of 2,480,072. San Diego County ranks 16th in population of all metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Located in the center of the County, the city of San Diego boasts the sixth largest population of all cities in the United States. Figure 11 shows the steady, gradual population growth in the city of San Diego since 1990. The median income for a family of four in San Diego County for 1995 was $45,000.
Figure 11: City of San Diego, Population Trend Relative to 1990
The San Diego Police Department has approximately 2,000 sworn officers, along with more than 660 civilian employees. The Department has a designated traffic division which has 110 sworn officers assigned to it, including the motorcycle unit, the crash investigative unit, and the traffic investigators. The Department also has eight Area Command posts that house all of the patrol units. The traffic division is considered the main level of enforcement for traffic safety in the San Diego Police Department, writing roughly 65% of all the traffic citations. Traffic enforcement is also a responsibility for the patrol officers from the area districts, but the level of that enforcement is a direct result of the command emphasis at each individual post.
The San Diego Police Department is very active in pursuing grant monies. There are currently a number of grant programs funded, and also a number of programs that began as grant-funded activities, but have since been assimilated into the regular operating procedure for the Department. These programs include anti-DWI enforcement, such as checkpoints run regularly throughout the year, as well as stepped up DWI patrols from the second week in November until the second week in January. The Department also has several smaller grants, such as the "Every 15 Minutes Program." This is an intense educational program implemented in local high schools which focuses on the fact that a death occurs as the result of a drunk driving crash every 15 minutes in this country. The traffic unit also has opened a child passenger safety seat clinic and fitting station that allows citizens to come in and have the child restraint properly fitted to their vehicle. The San Diego Traffic Offenders Program (STOP) is a program that once was funded by grants, but now is funded through the Department's budget. This program focuses on driver license checkpoints. Starting in 1997, the Department began participating in a Photo Red Light Program that allowed them to install 16 red light cameras at various intersections throughout San Diego. This program has been very successful and the Department plans to increase the total number of cameras from 16 to 32. There are currently six full-time officers working on this project out of the traffic division.
The San Diego County data were extracted from statewide citation data obtained from the California Department of Justice. We looked at three types of law enforcement agencies in San Diego County: the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego Sheriff's Department. Figure 12 shows citations and arrests for DUI offenses within San Diego County, which appear to be declining for all three agencies.
Figure 12: San Diego County - DUI Arrests by LEA, 1989-1999
Figure 13 below shows other traffic arrests (not including DUI offenses) for the San Diego Police and the San Diego Sheriff's Department. (CHP is not depicted because of the extremely low numbers of arrests and citations - ranging from 10 to 98 per month– for other traffic violations handled by that LEA within San Diego County.)
Figure 13: San Diego Police/Sheriff - Traffic Citations, 1992-1998
When our contact was asked about the sharp increase in 1997, he was uncertain of the reason, but attributed the increase to the Photo Red Light Program which uses cameras (discussed earlier in this section), and a change in higher management which may have caused greater activity during that year.
There was a definite steady downward trend in the numbers of citations issued for all traffic-related offenses combined from 1992-1996. There was a sharp increase during 1997 attributed at least in part to the use of automated cameras and perhaps an emphasis in enforcing traffic laws, but a downward trend since that time.
