The City of Long Beach Police Department Public Safety findings via “LB STAT”:
Goal: Reduce Auto Crash/Accidents by 4% in one calendar year.
4%
The LBPD is claiming an overwhelming VICTORY that they exceeded their goal, reducing crashes by a whopping 8.77%!
High five to those who like to set the bar really low and do not question the metrics or language
Issues: continued use of the word “accident”, their limited choice in metrics, not defining auto crashes, and the blocking of data to verify.
#crashNOTaccident
Setting a goal to reduces auto crashes by 4% is offensive. In 2016, you would be hard pressed to find a city that has set such a low bar. Why only 4%? Why not aim to eliminate ALL traffic crashes? We aren't talking about a dozen crashes- there are slightly less than 1000 reported crashes per year. Setting a low bar to reduce that number by 4% in a full year is embarrassing, insulting and demonstrates Zero Vision. Our lives deserve a better chance than an increased 4% chance we won’t be maimed or killed.
The findings by LB STAT contradict our data, pulled from multiple sources including FARS, DMV, paramedic dispatch records and online outreach for those that slipped through the cracks. We know that reported pedestrian crashes requiring LBFD dispatch [paramedics] nearly TRIPLED in 2015 over 2014. It seems LBSTAT is relying on the limited, highly skewed police records that come from a paper-driven system. We want to empower LB STAT to have the tools they need to create more accurate data sets.
We have offered the LB STAT person to sit and go over increasing their methods for data extraction beyond subjective police reports, to better track hotspots for crashes so the Police Commissioner has more pressure to address the most unsafe intersections and streets.
We have attempted to FOIL request LBPD but found the Police Commissioner to be utterly irresponsible and ignorant of smart, data-driven methods- stalling all efforts for transparency, lacking any concern for FOIL law, the multilayered consequences of traffic violence or inherent human rights to access space free of danger. We need this to change immediately. We need to ask more questions, to hold our Police Commissioner accountable and demand he stop sitting on the most advanced software that tracks traffic and crime in real time, technology the City of Long Beach has possessed and updated for years but does not utilize.
Let’s reframe this another way: 1000 reported crashes per year is 1000 bullets flying through the air. Would you expect the LBPD to reduce gun violence by 4%?