City Council
October 20, 2026
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Elizabeth Lake FROM: James P. Beere
Interim City Administrator Chief, OPD
SUBJECT: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant DATE: September 8, 2026 City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution: (1) Accepting And Appropriating Grant Funds In The Amount Of Four Hundred Fifty Thousand Nine Hundred Dollars ($450,900) From The State Of California, Office Of Traffic Safety (OTS), For The Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP), To Be Administered By The Oakland Police Department (OPD); And (2) Authorizing The Use Of General Purpose Services Fund To Contribute Up To Seventy-Three Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Six Dollars ($73,226) To Cover The Related Central Services Overhead Charges.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Approval of this proposed resolution will allow traffic safety OTS grant funds to be received by OPD Traffic Operations Section (TOS) for traffic safety. The $450,900 grant awarded to OPD will also be used to:
• Fund overtime costs for OPD officers engaged in DUI1 and other traffic safety and enforcement operations, including operations conducted in collaboration with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO)
• Purchase DUI checkpoint supplies
• Cover related In-State Travel
OTS does not allow grant funds to be used for overhead costs. OPD therefore requests that the City Council waive the City's Central Services Overhead (CSO) costs of $73,226.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Every week, on average, two Oaklanders are killed or severely injured in traffic crashes on our streets. These crashes disproportionately harm people in Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities, people with disabilities, seniors, and low-income communities. Crashes 1 DUI = driving under the influence of alcohol
Elizabeth Lake (Oct 8, 2026 15:29:37 PDT)
Elizabeth Lake Oct 8, 2026
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 2
City Council
October 20, 2026
are a leading cause of death among Oakland youth. All traffic crashes are preventable. Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) is a Citywide initiative that is taking a new approach to preventing crashes, focusing on strategies that will save lives and deliver equitable outcomes. The SOS collaboration includes Oakland’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and Department of Race and Equity as well as OPD – in partnership with community groups, to implement the most effective and equitable strategies. As a component of this work, the SOS initiative identified enforcement strategies that were presented to the City Council on April 20, 2021, and in October 2022. The proposed investments are in alignment with these strategies.
The State of California and SOS have made positive strides in recent years in reducing the rate of motorist-related fatal and serious injury collisions. Vehicle collisions occur primarily due to alcohol consumption, speeding, running of red lights, and other select vehicle code violations. Incidents involving these factors remain prevalent causes of death and injury nationally and in California. Traffic studies have shown that cities engaged in enforcement operations targeting dangerous moving violations have seen substantial reductions in fatal and injury collisions.
City Council previously approved acceptance and appropriation of the STEP grant via Resolution No. 80130 C.M.S., dated September 19, 2006, Resolution No. 80578 C.M.S., dated May 15, 2007, Resolution No. 81223 C.M.S., dated April 15, 2008, Resolution No. 83555 C.M.S., dated September 20, 2011; Resolution No. 84712 C.M.S., dated November 19, 2013; Resolution No. 85274 C.M.S., dated November 18, 2014; Resolution No. 85768 C.M.S., dated September 8, 2015; Resolution No. 86491 C.M.S., dated November 3, 2016, Resolution No. 86920 C.M.S., dated October 3, 2017, Resolution No. 87363 C.M.S., dated October 16, 2018, Resolution No. 87878 C.M.S, dated September 12, 2019, Resolution No. 88403 C.M.S., dated December 1, 2020, Resolution No. 88883 C.M.S., dated November 2, 2021, and Resolution No. 89496 C.M.S., date December 6, 2022, Resolution No. 89891 C.M.S., dated September 19, 2023, Resolution No. 90414 C.M.S., dated September 17, 2024, and Resolution No. 90848 C.M.S, dated September 15, 2025.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
The state of California and the SOS are strategizing how to mitigate traffic injuries, collisions, and deaths. With the appropriate staffing, enforcement, and equipment, OPD, along with its partners, can continue to address the issues that are causing harm in the community.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) funds OTS to administer the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP). These grant funds will provide OPD with the added tools to be more successful in curbing problems associated with impaired drivers, red light runners, speeding vehicles, and other aggressive and reckless driving.
OPD's goals for use of STEP grant fund include:
• increasing motorist, pedestrian, and bicyclist safety; and • reducing traffic fatalities and injuries.
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 3
City Council
October 20, 2026
OPD staff plans to achieve these goals by deploying comprehensive, consistent, and targeted traffic enforcement. In January 2021, OPD’s Traffic Enforcement Unit personnel were cut due to limited budget funds. In September 2025, the OPD Traffic Enforcement Team was disbanded. At this time, the Oakland Police Department does not currently have a traffic enforcement team. OPD’s extra enforcement is being staffed by a few sworn traffic investigators assigned to the traffic operations unit as well as patrol officers assigned to regular field duties.
As recruiting continues at OPD, the goal is to have a dedicated team reassigned to focus on traffic enforcement. The STEP grant funding would provide much needed traffic enforcement in the City of Oakland.
OPD Traffic Operations Section (TOS) will use the grant funds to promote vehicular safety through both education and enforcement. OPD will partner with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) to conduct high visibility collaborative DUI and Traffic enforcement operations. Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) devices are used to enforce speed limits around schools, certain residential neighborhoods, and roads that have a current speed survey (which allows for the use of LIDAR). Also, OPD will purchase DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint supplies needed for those operations.
Staff will continue to operate the STEP grant in accordance with OPD policies and the OTS grant requirements. These requirements include the performance of the following operations planned between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027:
• Conduct 6 DUI/DL Checkpoints
• 27 DUI Saturation Patrol Operations
• 14 Traffic Operations, including, but not limited to, select primary collision factor violations
• 6 Bicycle and Pedestrian enforcement operations in identified areas of high bicycle and pedestrian traffic collisions
• Conduct 2 Specialized Enforcement Operations focusing specifically on street racing and sideshow activities
• 2Motorcycle Safety Operations
• 12 Highly Visible DUI Enforcement operations in collaboration with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO)
• 12 Highly Visible Traffic Enforcement operations in collaboration with Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO)
• Send 2 law enforcement personnel to DUI Checkpoint Planning and Management Training
• 2 DUI warrant service operations
• 2 Traffic Safety Educational presentations with an effort to reach out to community members
• 12 Distracted driving operations
• Participation in NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) winter and summer mobilizations, National Walk to School Day, National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, National Click It or Ticket mobilization period, National Bicycle Safety Month, National Motorcycle Safety Month, National Teen Driver Safety Week, National Child Passenger Safety Week, California Pedestrian Safety Month • Maintain a “HOT Sheet” program to notify patrol and traffic officers to be on the
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 4
City Council
October 20, 2026
lookout for identified repeat DUI offenders on a monthly basis • Send 4 law enforcement personnel to the NHTSA Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) POST2
-certified training
• Send 10 law enforcement personnel to the NHTSA Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) POST-certified training
• Send 2 law enforcement personnel to the Drug Recognition Expert DRE recertification training
• Send 2 law enforcement personnel to the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) training • Send 2 law enforcement personnel to SFST instructor training. • Send 2 law enforcement personnel to DRE instructor training.
OPD administered STEP grants inFY 2010-2011, FY 2011-2012, FY 2013-2014, FY 2014- 2015, FY 2015-2016, FY 2016-2017, FY 2018-19, FY 2019-2020, FY 2020-2021, FY 2021- 2022, FY 2022-2023, FY 2023-2024, FY 2024-2025 and FY 2025-2026. Table 1 below provides collision data for the prior three years.
Many factors (undetermined in many cases) can contribute to collisions. Table 1 below shows that traffic collision injuries have increased in FY 2023-2024 compared to the prior fiscal year.
The number of victims has decreased from FY 2021-2022.
There was also an increase in fatal collisions in FY2023-2024 from the previous year, but a decrease from FY 2021-22. The number of fatalities related to collisions happening at nighttime remained the same in FY2023-24 compared to the previous year. The number of fatal collisions at nighttime is lower than FY 2021-22. The chart shows that more traffic enforcement work needs to be done. The City of Oakland is prioritizing traffic enforcement and has increased their work on the Safe Oakland Streets Initiative. These efforts have a positive impact on the lives and safety of Oakland community members.
2 POST = California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Testing
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 5
City Council
October 20, 2026
Table 1 - OaklandCollisions,Injuries,andFatalities:2023-2026 Collisio
n Type
FY 2023-24 FY 2024-25 FY 2025-26
Collisions Victims Collisions Victims Collisions Victims Fatal 34 35 26 26 22 25
Injury 1028 1341 1028 1341 1150 1488
Fat
al
Injur
y
Kille
d
Injure
d
Fat
al
Injur
y
Kille
d
Injure
d
Fat
al
Injur
y
Kille
d
Injure
d
Alcohol
-
Involve
d 4 55 4 66 5 66 5 77 24 60 7 56
Hit &
Run 13 130 14 155 9 339 9 434 8 301 14 424
Nightti
me
(2100-
0259
hours) 11 70 11 90 10 112 10 248 8 184 10 217
Top 3 Primary Collision Factors* Fat
al
Injur
y
Kille
d
Injure
d
#1 - 21453 – Red Light 3 165 3 219
#2 - 22350 – Speed for Conditions 2 504 4 634
#3 - 22450 – Stop Sign 2 164 2 219
* Estimated data
Funding from OTS will position OPD to continue its efforts to make the streets safer for pedestrians and the motoring public. Table 2 below provides the total number of reported collisions from FY 2024-2025 and FY 2025-2026. The number of overall collisions has increased this year from the previous year, but more traffic enforcement work needs to be done to lower the number of collisions in the city. The vast majority of our stops have been on the High Injury Network. We will continue to work with the Oakland Department of Transportation and identify dangerous roads and driver behavior trends in an attempt to make roadways safer for all travelers.
Table 2: Collision Incidents: July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025, July 1, 2025- June 30, 2026 FY 2024-2025 FY 2025-2026
Collisions 3611 3317
The data presented in Table 3 below represents Total Parties by Race, who were injured in collisions from Jul 1, 2024 – Jun 30, 2025, and Jul 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.
Table 3: Total Parties by Race in Injury Crashes: Jul 1, 2024 – Jun 30, 2025 and Jul 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 6
City Council
October 20, 2026
FY 2024-2025 FY 2025-2026
Race Number Percentage Number Percentage
Black 1441 28.7% 1310 27.7%
Hispanic 1504 30% 1269 26.88%
White 383 7.6% 686 14.53%
Asian 411 8.2% 441 9.39%
Other 51 1% 272 5.7%
Not Stated* 1231 24.5% 742 15.80%
Total 5021 100% 4720 100%
*Not Stated includes Hit and Run Drivers
Traffic Officers are directed to focus on areas identified in the Oakland Department of Transportation (“OakDOT”) High Injury Network, locations where the city has its highest number of injury and fatal collisions. Areas of focus also include locations where there are current speed surveys, and Oakland public school sites. Officers are also directed to areas where Area Commanders have requested support due to resident complaints involving traffic violators, or when there is an increase in crime, and high visibility enforcement has been requested. The stops are focused on public safety violations, such as speeding, failure to yield, unsafe turning, red light running, and driving under the influence of alcohol and /or drugs. Beginning this grant year, OPD directed motor officers to focus on public safety stops; equipment violations and bicycle/pedestrian violations are the lowest priority stops.
Traffic Officers have all attended Procedural Justice Training and Implicit Bias Training to ensure that officers are aware of how police efforts can negatively impact communities of color.
All stops are reviewed by the first level supervisor and the Traffic Section Commander. OPD recently rolled out a new risk management dashboard for review; OPD plans to use this tool and reduce the high number of stops made in communities of color. OPD considers equity and the geographic distribution of traffic enforcement while also recognizing that there continues to be opportunities to improve how equity informs local traffic enforcement. Table 4 below shows the top violations by type, for stopped vehicles during STEP Grant-funded operations.
Table 4: Top Violations by Traffic Officers 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026 Violation Violation Description # %OTS
22123(A) Cell Phone Use - Handheld 296 29.45%
22450(A) Stop sign 294 29.20%
21461(A) Drive Fail Obey Sign 227 22.58%
21453(a) Red Light 88 8.75%
23123.5 Cell Phone Use - Text 35 3.48%
27315(d) Seat Belt 29 2.88%
21453(c) Red Arrow 14 1.39%
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 7
City Council
October 20, 2026
Violation Violation Description # %OTS
24655.5 Bus Lane Violation 9 -1%
22102 Illegal U-Turn in Business District 7 -1%
22107 Unsafe Change of Course 6 -1%
Total 1005
RELATED PLANNING EFFORTS
This agenda item is a routine item and does not relate to any Oakland strategic planning efforts.
FISCAL IMPACT
OTS will reimburse the Department up to $450,900 for the various enforcement operations and education programs during the grant period of October 1, 2026, to September 30, 2027. The budget for the OTS STEP grant award is outlined in Table 5 below.
Table 5 STEP Funding Plan
Use of Funds Amount
Over time to conduct enforcement operations $296,670
Over time to conduct collaborative enforcement operations in partnership with ACSO $147,120
Travel/Training Expenses $4,600
DUI Checkpoint Supplies $2,510
TOTAL $450,900
Funds will be allocated in the State of California Grant Fund (2159), Traffic Enforcement Division Organization (107510), Traffic Operations Program (PS14), inProject TBD. The program will be managed by the Traffic Operations Section Commander.
Table 6 - Location of OTS STEP Grant Funds
Fiscal Year Fund Source Organization Project Award Amount 2026-27 2159 107510 TBD TBD $450,900
General Purpose Fund Contributions
Based on the City's Central Services Overhead (CSO) rate of 16.24 percent, overhead charges associated with the grant’s personnel costs will be approximately $73,226. However, per the granting agency, indirect costs such as CSO charges are disallowed. Staff therefore
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 8
City Council
October 20, 2026
requests that the City's General-Purpose Fund contribute $73,226 to cover the CSO charges.
The Central Services Overhead shall be funded to the General Purpose Fund (1010), Traffic Enforcement Division Org (107510), Project (TBD), Program (TBD).
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
This item is of interest to the public as these grant funds will be used to promote public safety and in support of Safe Oakland Streets.
COORDINATION
This report and legislation have been reviewed by the Office of the City Attorney and the Budget Bureau.
RACE AND EQUITY
Officers are directed to focus on areas identified as locations where the city has its highest number of injuries and fatal collisions. Traffic Officers have all attended Procedural Justice Training and Implicit Bias Training to ensure that officers are aware of how police efforts can negatively impact communities of color. All stops are reviewed by the first level supervisor and the Traffic Section Commander. OPD recently rolled out a new risk management dashboard for review; OPD plans to use this tool and reduce the high number of stops made in communities of color. OPD considers equity and the geographic distribution of traffic enforcement while also recognizing that there continue to be opportunities to improve how equity informs local traffic enforcement.
Safe Oakland Streets has a goal of eliminating severe and fatal injury inequities, including racial disparities impacting BIPOC communities that exist today in Oakland. In 2018, the Oakland Equity Indicators Report found troubling disparities in pedestrian deaths in Oakland. The City of Oakland experiences approximately two severe or fatal traffic crashes each week, with crashes disproportionately impacting BIPOC, high-priority communities, and seniors. In December 2020, OPD reported a surge in traffic-related fatalities, where 36 people were killed on Oakland’s roadways, compared to the 26 people killed in 2019. Fatalities decreased only slightly to 31 people killed in 2021. In 2022, 34 people were killed, and in 2023, 32 people were killed. In 2024, there were 31 people have been killed. In 2025, there have been 22 people killed. In the first eight months of 2026, 20 people have been killed. The most common causes of collisions are speeding, failure to yield, unsafe turning, red light running, and driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. The majority (60%) of crashes are highly concentrated on just 6% of the 800 miles of Oakland’s city-maintained streets, as identified as Oakland’s high injury network.
Furthermore, the High Injury Network (HIN) generally overlaps with Oakland’s map of priority neighborhoods as found in Oakland’s Geographic Equity Toolbox. The toolbox prioritizes neighborhoods based on concentrations of people with demographic factors determined to have experienced historic and current disparities. Reckless driving, speeding, unlicensed vehicle
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: FY 2026-27 OPD Traffic Safety Grant
Date: September 8, 2026 Page 9
City Council
October 20, 2026
operation, DUI, and other traffic problems negatively impact public safety and the quality of life of all Oaklanders. Efforts to address these problems will lead to life improvements for all residents and visitors.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution: (1) Accepting And Appropriating Grant Funds In The Amount Of Four Hundred Fifty Thousand Nine Hundred Dollars ($450,900) From The State Of California, Office Of Traffic Safety (OTS), For The Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP), To Be Administered By The Oakland Police Department (OPD); (2) And Authorizing The Use Of General Purpose Services Fund To Contribute Up To Seventy-Three Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Six Dollars ($73,226) To Cover The Related Central Services Overhead Charges.
For questions about this report, please contact Lieutenant Michael Cardoza, OPD, Traffic Operations Section, at (510) 777-8646.
Reviewed by:
William Febel, Captain
OPD, Traffic Operations Section
LaRaija Marshal, Fiscal Services Manager
OPD, Fiscal Services Division
Dr. Tracey Jones, Legislative Services Manager
OPD, Research and Planning
Prepared by:
Michael Cardoza, Lieutenant
OPD, Traffic Operations Unit