SAN JOSE — Amid an elevated level of city roadway deaths in the past five years, the San Jose Police Department has been awarded a $300,000 state grant to drive down serious traffic collisions in the coming year.
Police say much of the grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, announced Monday, will go toward staffing DUI checkpoints and traffic patrols, and bolstering street enforcement that keeps an eye out for distracted driving and unsafe behaviors by motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
As the department has done in the past, the extra traffic-enforcement staffing will largely come in the form of officers from throughout the department working overtime shifts funded by the grant.
“The funds from this grant will allow us to focus more officers on much needed traffic safety,” acting Lt. Steven Payne said in a statement.
In addition to the increased street enforcement in 2017, some of the grant money will go toward education campaigns at city schools, as well as a campaign to identify and root out repeat DUI offenders.
The state funds are a welcome influx to the SJPD traffic division, which has seen stark manpower cuts in the past eight years as the department has shrunk by a third.
Besides attrition, many traffic officers have been reallocated to help maintain basic street patrol levels. Today, the department fields six full-time traffic-enforcement officers, down from more than 40 just four years ago.
There have been 39 traffic deaths in San Jose so far this year, which represents an elevated rate in recent years. In 2015, the city recorded 60 traffic deaths, which marked the highest total in over two decades and outpaced homicides 2-to-1.
Pedestrian deaths have also been on the rise in the past five years, capped by 23 each in 2014 and 2015. This year, 11 have been recorded to date.
Statewide, traffic fatalities have risen by 17 percent, according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That includes a six-year rise in pedestrian and bicyclist deaths.
