South San Francisco, CA May 14, 2016 Submitted by SSFPD 
On Saturday May 14th, traffic officers fanned out across South San Francisco in a crackdown looking for speeding drivers. These traffic enforcement saturation patrol was just one of many being completed on various days throughout this year. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Each saturation patrol consists of specially-trained officers using new state-of-the-art lidar devices to check driver’s speeds. Lidar is a highly-accurate laser device that measures distances down to inches and exact speeds of vehicles. The lidar devices are equipped with special optical sighting systems that can differentiate between vehicles; this allows officers to target the fastest vehicle on a roadway and obtain an exact speed reading.
During the crackdown, officers targeted roadways in the City that are known complaint areas and/or streets that have high injury or fatality traffic collision rates where speed was the primary cause of the accidents. The streets enforced during the saturation patrols were: Hillside Boulevard, El Camino Real, and Sister Cities Boulevard. During the crackdown, officers handed out a total of 79 speeding citations and 2 citations for other offenses. Two unlicensed drivers were also cited.
The drivers issued speeding citations were traveling an average of 15 MPH or higher over the posted speed limit. The goal of these operations is to remind motorists to drive with caution, obey the speed limit, and drive safely. Remember, “Don’t Speed or You’ll be Next”.