We endorse a "Yes" vote for Proposed Charter Change Question #4 in the upcoming May 21st election, establishing the title of "Public Safety Enforcement Officer" to assist the Police Department in regulating the flow of traffic.
This is a measure that we have supported, with qualifications, since it was proposed late in 2018.
Why we support this proposed charter change:
- The city has seen traffic fatalities increase from 76 in 2016 to 99 in 2017, along with another increase to 103 in 2018.
- Philadelphia's congestion is worse than it's ever been.
- Vision Zero embraces enforcement as one of many tools to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and severe injuries.
- Peer cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC, and New York all have similar enforcement agencies.
- Cities that comprehensively enforce traffic laws see significantly fewer traffic crashes and fatalities.
- The Philadelphia Police Department has been issuing fewer moving vehicle citations from 2012 to 2017.
Our reservations about this charter change are:
- The measure leaves out key details, especially in regards to the duties and training of these new officers.
- This new enforcement agency needs to be structured and monitored in a way to avoid disproportionately impacting low-income communities, people of color, and also those most physically vulnerable on the street: pedestrians and cyclists.
- We see more value in good engineering infrastructure changes to improve road safety.
- In terms of enforcement, we would like more automated measures such as speed cameras, red-light cameras, and bus lane cameras, which is proven to be an effective, cost-efficient, and uniform tool.
5th Square believes that the potential benefits of this proposed charter change outweigh our reservations enough to issue a "Yes" endorsement. If the measure passes, we will closely monitor its development and look forward to working with the City to ensure the program stays on the right path.
“traffic officer” by Chris Yarzab is licensed under CC BY 2.0