Police captain faces cyclists’ complaints about crackdown

Sacha Ielmorini (right) executes a full stop at a stop sign during a biking protest on the way to a community meeting with SFPD Park Station Captain John Sanford in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015. less Sacha Ielmorini (right) executes a full stop at a stop sign during a biking protest on the way to a community meeting with SFPD Park Station Captain John Sanford in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Aug. ... more Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Police captain faces cyclists’ complaints about crackdown 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

San Francisco cyclists, frustrated by increased enforcement along a popular biking route through the city, got the chance to air their grievances as the police captain who ordered the crackdown addressed the public for the first time Tuesday evening at an often contentious community meeting.

Capt. John Sanford, who heads the Police Department’s Park Station, ordered the special two-day enforcement operation, which specifically targeted bikers, after he said his office received numerous complaints about scofflaw cyclists along the Wiggle.

“As a law enforcement agency, we are responsible for preventing events on the road that can lead to deaths,” he said to a crowd that numbered close to 100. “When we get complaints, and we did get many complaints, it is our job, our responsibility, to respond to the concerns of the community.”

Over the two days cyclists along the Wiggle were targeted, Sanford said his officers issued 204 citations, with the vast majority going to bikers, mostly for running stop signs and red lights.

The problem with basing enforcement operations on citizen complaints, said Chris Cassidy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, is that it ignores valuable data that researchers have used to identify the city’s most dangerous intersections and behaviors.

“All we’re asking for is smart enforcement,” he said. “Making decisions based on data is essential. If you don’t, you’re not just ignoring the numbers, you’re ignoring the families of bikers who have suffered tragedies on the streets of San Francisco.”

Bicycling advocates oppose the crackdown because they want police to follow the city’s Vision Zero guidelines of prioritizing enforcement of the five behaviors most likely to cause traffic collisions in San Francisco, all of which involve cars and drivers: failure to yield to pedestrians, speeding, running red lights, ignoring stop signs and violating turn restrictions.

Sanford said the operation was an attempt to change behavior among San Francisco’s cycling community and that there were no plans for similar efforts in the future.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale