The San Diego Police Department is stopping fewer drivers than in past years, while traffic deaths have increased significantly.

San Diego Police Department spokesperson Lt. Cesar Jimenez said new reporting requirements, staffing issues and other priorities account for the reduction in stops.

But the department and local advocates agree that enforcement is a key piece of the city’s Vision Zero goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero.

“We are not intending for, traffic collisions to go up or traffic deaths to go up, obviously,” Lt. Jimenez said. “But it’s more to kind of look into. And if ultimately the community says, hey, we need more traffic enforcement, then that’s something that our leadership will look into. And if we need to move, some folks, then we’ll do that.”

Other cities are looking at automating that enforcement, with speed and red-light cameras.

A KPBS analysis of publicly available police data shows that the San Diego Police Department conducted 144,165 traffic stops in 2014; but by 2019 that number had fallen to just 75,320.

SDPD initiated 62,071 traffic stops in 2024, a 56.9% reduction since 2014.

Meanwhile, traffic deaths have increased significantly in that timeframe.

According to the San Diego Association of Governments traffic safety dashboard which relies on data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), there were 78 reported traffic fatalities in San Diego in 2014.

SWITRS data compiled by the UC Berkeley Transportation Injury Mapping System shows there were 115 traffic in 2024 deaths – an increase of 47.4%.

From 2014–2019, records show there were fewer than 100 traffic deaths in San Diego each year. Since 2020, there have been more than 100 deaths each year, peaking at 124 in 2022.

Lt. Jimenez said there are several reasons why traffic stops have decreased, but one is the introduction of the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) in 2015.

This policy took effect in 2018 and requires all law enforcement agencies to report demographic data to the state Attorney General’s office. Lt. Jimenez said those reports could take as long as 20 minutes to complete after pulling over a vehicle.

“Every time an officer stops somebody, they have to fill out a RIPA form,” Lt. Jimenez said. “So in it, it’s about 30 questions, depending on the stop in and of itself, and how many people were, for example, in a vehicle. If they stop three people in a vehicle and they get their information, they’ve got to fill out a report card for each person.”

Lt. Jimenez said body-worn cameras also add time to the process when officers have to enter metadata into a system. He said while these requirements have been a key part of accountability, and a benefit to SDPD officers, they mean police can’t stop vehicles as regularly and consistently.

“The second point to consider is that we have changed to a model of more focused enforcement, and more– not just enforcement, but also focus on the things that matter to our communities,” Lt. Jimenez said.

He pointed to the neighborhood policing team that is dedicated to helping homeless people and connecting them with shelter and services. The Community and Youth Services division is another area of focus for the department, where officers are going to schools to talk with kids, and going to meetings and answering questions to help with community problems.

Those efforts have taken a “good amount” of officers that would have been patrolling and making traffic stops, he said.

Jimenez also pointed to a reduction in the number of officers on the force.

“We just have fewer officers, we have fewer officers, in general. And [compared to] this time last year, we have about 85 fewer officers,” Jimenez said.

The sworn officer to population ratio in San Diego was 1.43 officers per 1,000 in 2024 according to a 2025 SANDAG report. That’s lower than the national average of 2.4.

Meanwhile, San Diego’s crime rate of roughly 20 crimes per 1000 people is the lowest of any city in America with over 1 million people, according to 2024 FBI data.

Voice of San Diego, a non-profit partner of KPBS, reported in 2023 that all police stops, not just traffic stops, were down significantly.

Police leaders acknowledged at the time that the protests in 2020 over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota were partially responsible.

“No one wants to be the next viral video,” SDPD Captain Jeff Jordon told Voice of San Diego at the time.

Former president of the San Diego Police Officers Association Jared Wilson told Voice at the time that officers had likely been reassigned from doing proactive stops, and were responding to calls instead. He said he thinks that’s partly why traffic deaths increased as well.

The SDPOA declined to comment for this story.

San Diego is not alone. A 2023 NPR report said traffic deaths had increased nationwide, while police departments across the country were pulling over fewer drivers.

And statewide data from the California Court Statistics Report shows that case filings for infractions, which includes traffic violations like speeding or running a red light, and traffic misdemeanors, like DUIs and reckless driving, are down 42% and 67% respectively since 2014.

Fatalities are higher across the state as well, according to the SWITRS data going back to 2015. That year there were 3,435 deaths on California’s roads. In 2022, the number peaked at 4,537 roadway deaths – a 32% increase. In 2024, there were 3,786 reported deaths; a decrease from the peak, but still higher than in 2015.

Aria Grossman from Circulate San Diego, a local transportation advocacy group, said San Diego’s Vision Zero goals can’t be accomplished without adequate enforcement of traffic safety laws.

The city is considering lowering speed limits on several streets in an effort to improve safety, but Grossman said those efforts need to be coupled with enforcement.

“Safer speeds is a key, you know, tenant of the safe systems approach, and efforts to reduce speed limits, like the efforts that the city of San Diego are undergoing, like as we speak…will literally have no effect if these new speed limits and laws aren’t enforced,” Grossman said.

Grossman said building safer infrastructure is another important way to improve road safety. Speed bumps, roundabouts, better crosswalks and reducing lanes are noted in the city’s Vision Zero documents.

The city is currently reviewing an update to the street design manual which informs how traffic engineers should design city streets. But these physical improvements to roadways also take time to implement and money.

“I’m sure everyone in the city of San Diego is very familiar with the budget woes that the city is facing,” Grossman said.

Roadway safety projects like those in the city’s mobility plan go through an extensive process of planning, engagement, and budgeting before construction, which is ultimately subject to approval by the Mayor and City Council.

But other cities are looking at ways to improve safety more quickly through enforcement without increasing police patrols.

California passed a law in 2023 establishing a pilot speed camera program in six cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, but not San Diego.

The City of Encinitas is also re-evaluating red light cameras after the death of a 12-year-old crossing a busy street.

Emery Chalekian was killed while crossing Encinitas Boulevard in April. Her mother Bridget is urging the city to re-install the camera systems that she said could have saved her daughter’s life.

“She followed the law. She trusted the system that is supposed to protect pedestrians, and that system failed her,” Chalekian told KPBS Public Matters partner inewsource.

Privacy advocates have recently raised concerns about surveillance in light of the city’s continued use of cameras that read license plates. State law creates limits on how this data can be used, but police departments routinely access privately-held data from these systems.

The bill that established the speed camera pilot program has stricter safeguards. It requires cities in the pilot to create comprehensive policies around privacy, including prohibiting facial recognition and limiting data collection and storage. And it explicitly prohibits non-public agencies from collecting or accessing that data.

“Measures that get at making our streets safer, but eliminate some of that bias that can come with, you know, active police enforcement, are something that Circulate is supportive of and are net-positive in our communities,” Grossman said.

Lt. Jimenez agreed that automated enforcement options could be useful in keeping streets safe.

“As long as…the courts allow us to use that kind of technology, I think that would be helpful as well,” Lt. Jimenez said.

As cities like San Diego grapple with budget issues and understaffed police departments, the options for curtailing deaths on the roadways remain limited.