An interesting experiment not intended

I saw on "Powerline" today how the rate of traffic tickets issued in San Francisco has plummeted in the past decade.  For reference, here is the graph, and the crazy thing is that while the rate of issuing tickets has dropped by a factor of 30 or so, the vehicular death rate is about the same in the same time period.  

Now perhaps San Francisco imposes a degree of traffic sanity found  in not too many other places with large hills and lots of stoplights, but I do have to wonder if this is an indication that if it's public safety we're looking for, we need to take Officer Friendly off traffic patrol and have him start investigating serious crimes like rape--or replace him with someone who can.