Assuming that you’re a fantastic driver and that it’s the other approximately 27 million people doing it wrong is a truly Californian idea. Recent evidence in a drop in traffic citations in some areas of SF may bolster that argument for some, but as the Examiner reports, we’re still shitty drivers — cops were just, one SFPD captain says, taking it easy on us, so we’d take it easy on them in the voting booth.
After fears of a city worker “Pension Tsunami,” Public Defender Jeff Adachi sponsored a union-despised measure known as Prop B, which would have required city workers to pay more for health and pension benefits
The measure was defeated in November, but fears that voters might transfer their frustration at being ticketed for moving violations caused citations in areas including Glen Park, the Excelsior and the Outer Mission to drop 28% in October and 4% November, according to Ingleside District Capt. Louis Cassanego.
“Part of it is the Prop. B issue, where officers don’t want to cite citizens before the election on Prop. B,” Cassanego said at a public police department meeting last week. “I know that that’s a sensitive issue, but it’s a fact and it’s out there.”
By all accounts, this was the first SFPD leadership had heard about the issue. An investigation’s been launched into Cassanego’s allegations since he made those remarks.
“Right before the election the numbers plummeted by a quarter and we have to figure out why that is,” SFPD spokesperson Lt. Troy Dangerfield told KCBS, telling them that if Cassanego assertions were correct, non-ticketing cops were violating the SFPD’s code of conduct.
Adachi told the Ex he wasn’t surprised, saying “(w)hen it comes to protecting city benefits, I guess anything goes,” he said. “I think this situation should alarm citizens, in that we expect police officers to be objective, not subjective, in doing their jobs and certainly not political,” he told KCBS.
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