San Fran­cis­co costs itself mil­lions with deci­sion to stop writ­ing traf­fic tick­ets

San Fran­cis­co, pro­ject­ed to have a bil­lion-dol­lar deficit by 2027, has left mil­lions in rev­enue on the table over the past decade because law enforce­ment has been forced to cut back on the num­ber of traf­fic cita­tions they issue, which has dropped a stag­ger­ing 96%, accord­ing to a new analy­sis.
The deci­sion to stop focus­ing on traf­fic tick­ets has been dri­ven by staffing short­ages — San Fran­cis­co is cur­rent­ly down 600 police offi­cers — as well as law enforce­ment offi­cers turn­ing their atten­tion to oth­er types of crime, accord­ing to the San Fran­cis­co Stan­dard.

A San Fran­cis­co Police offi­cer dri­ves through a home­less encamp­ment being cleaned up on Tues­day, Aug. 29, 2023, in San Fran­cis­co. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In 2014, the San Fran­cis­co Police Depart­ment cit­ed near­ly 130,000 traf­fic vio­la­tions, accord­ing to depart­ment data the news out­let reviewed. That fig­ure dropped to about …