PREPARED BY: Brian BUBAR DATE OF MEETING: 09/08/20
SUBJECT:
TITLE
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN PABLO AUTHORIZING THE SAN PABLO POLICE DEPARTMENT TO ACCEPT AND APPROPRIATE $28,398 IN GRANT FUNDING FROM THE OFFICE OF TRAFFIC SAFETY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TRAFFIC RECORDS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT GRANT PROGRAM TO UPGRADE EXISTING ELECTRONIC CRASH REPORTING AND IMPLEMENT A COMPLETE ELECTRONIC CITATION SOLUTION
Label
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Adopt Resolution
Body
Compliance statements
Traffic Safety Program and Strengthen Technological Infrastructure are adopted policy items under the FY 2019-21 Council Priority Work Plan, effective March 1, 2019 and as most recently amended on May 18, 2020.
CEQA Compliance Statement
This is not a project as defined by CEQA. Pursuant to Section 15001 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
BACKGROUND
State and local agencies need timely, accurate, complete, accessible, and uniform traffic records to identify and prioritize traffic safety issues, to choose appropriate safety countermeasures and evaluate their effectiveness. The Office of Traffic Safety’s (OTS) traffic records improvement grant provides traffic safety stakeholders with the ability to plan and initiate traffic records improvement projects such as the purchase and implementation of traffic crash reporting systems as well as electronic citation equipment and software.
From 2017-2019, the Police Department investigated 330 injury collisions and six fatal collisions. These investigations and reporting requirements are complex and involve multiple resources from Investigations and the Traffic Unit. This reporting is subsequently manually entered into a records management system with hard copy reports mailed for inclusion into the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System. The Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) is a database that collects and processes data gathered from a collision scene. The Internet SWITRS application is a tool that leverages this database to allow California Highway Patrol (CHP) staff, members of its Allied Agencies, as well as researchers and members of the public to request various types of statistical reports in an electronic format.
The Patrol Division currently handwrites all citations and provides a carbon copy to the person receiving the ticket and returns the original to the Records Unit. This system has proven to be vulnerable to error in data entry and accountability of submissions. Officers are required to submit these citations for supervisor approval before being submitted to Records. During this process, there is no record of the citation other than the physical copy which exists outside the records management system. There are too many instances of misplaced, damaged, or illegible citations. This compounds the time needed to submit to the Court, and provides insufficient accountability in tracking citations.
The San Pablo Police Department was selected by OTS for funding and to participate in the “Traffic Records Improvement Grant Program.” The total amount of provided grant funding is $28,398. The City of San Pablo Police Department supports the grant goals and wishes to participate in the grant program. Funds are provided for the purchase of equipment and software to support traffic reporting. The grant period is from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.
The Police Department wishes to use grant funding to upgrade the existing electronic crash reporting program to the latest version available that includes the capability of electronically exporting complete crash report records to a departmental records management system and the California Highway Patrol's SWITRS System. Furthermore, the Police Department wishes to purchase and implement a complete electronic citation solution that includes the capability of exporting data to both a departmental records management system (RMS) as well as the local court records system.
The efficient and accurate reporting of collision and citation data will result in prompt development of traffic safety strategies to reduce the number of injury/fatal collisions in San Pablo.
FISCAL IMPACT
The $28,398 in grant funding would be accepted and appropriated to the FY 2020/21 Police Department budget to fund the grant purchases. All procurement of equipment and software will be in compliance with City of San Pablo Purchasing Policy guidelines.
|
Transaction |
Fund Name |
Account Code |
Task Code |
Amount |
|
Accept |
General Fund |
100-2110-33405 |
TRI-000 |
$28,398 |
|
|
|
Total Revenues |
|
$28,398 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Appropriate |
General Fund Special Department Expense |
100-2110-44000 |
TRI-000 |
$28,398 |
|
|
|
Total Appropriation |
|
$28,398 |