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. . . . . - citations, officers don't simply look for every possible violation in the book.... The officers are expected, as I understand it, to pursue certain kinds of violations above others - according to the performance improvement program. The following Vehicle Code violations have been listed as primary collision factors: unsafe speed, following too closely, improper turn, right-of-way, stop sign, traffic signal, unsafe start and backing. It's been determined as I understand that these are the kinds of violations that most endanger the well being and welfare of our community. And as I understand it, officers are urged to concentrate on those, and their notes on the back of his or her daily time sheet are supposed to include the violations being monitored, so that I believe supervisors can evaluate that tickets are being issued for substantial reasons. I think that's very important. This policy I see as being part and parcel of the City's interest in placing a new emphasis on traffic safety, as a result of the insistence by our citizens that we do so. For example, we are also engaged in important traffic calming studies and going neighborhood by neighborhood with new traffic calming engineers, and we'll be bringing traffic calming devices to neighborhoods. This is all part of an effort to respond to the citizenry to ensure safer streets and improve traffic situations. Secondly, the law states that we should use numerical standards as only one part of the mix for performance review. I think it's pretty clear that that is the case. And finally, thirdly, citizens are concerned with arrests, and rightly so. They want to know that arrests are legitimate and not done simply to make arrests, but are the result of legitimate investigation and other work. And I am satisfied to hear that the D.A.'s office has indicated that the filing ratio has stayed the same. In other words, when the D.A.'s office gets files based on arrests, they make a determination as to whether there is enough evidence to really prosecute the crime. And there is a ratio that is - created, so many files are returned because there is not enough information, as I understand it. That's a very important statistic because it shows the degree to which each Police Department is creating legitimate arrests, and our arrest ratios are as high now as they were before these standards. And finally I think it is important to note that we are not alone in this. Other communities have varying methods of numerical expectations, flexible numerical expectations, including Palo Alto which actually has a higher numerical standard for arrests. Palo Alto says their flexible expectation for arrests is eight, as opposed to the seven that are being used now, and I believe ours are being dropped to six. I think on those issues, in my point of view, this is a legal policy, an effective policy, and one that the people of Redwood City can feel good about. Council Member Claire said, "First of all this has been a very difficult topic for me. I learned about this ITom a phone call from an individual ITom the press asking me for my opinion about a quota system. I had not seen the articles, I had no information about the article, I had no information about what that individual was talking about. But after listening to that individual read the article to me, I made a knee jerk reaction and said that's horrible, and we've got to get rid of it. And upon being pressed for an answer, said the 'Well, if the City Manager doesn't do something about it, we'll get rid of the City Manager.' That was a stupid statement and I apologized for that before. But since that point in time there has been other personal attacks on me by individuals in the community - who think that I'm in some way after the current Chief. I've been told that I'll be targeted for a Recall. I've been told that I'm a racist. And been told a lot of things that are very REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 FEBRUARY 2,1998 MINUTES Page No. 233 PAGE 18