Behind the Badge
Seeing the daily damage and trauma can take its toll, but “that’s the job,” Detective Kelvin Catlin says of working in the Collision Investigation Unit of the Santa Ana Police Department.
In the past couple of months, in the wake of one of the city’s more tragic fatal crashes, it has been even tougher.
The past 18 months have been difficult overall as Santa Ana experienced a record 31 fatalities from automobile accidents in 2024 — particularly when most of them are so utterly preventable.
While cities and governments spend money on mobility studies and solutions and manufacturers continue to look for ways to improve safety, Occam’s razor tells us the answers are much simpler.
“Slow down. Hang up your phone. Wear a seat belt,” Catlin says.
Santa Ana Police Department uses all the federal and state resources available for officer and public safety training, DUI checkpoints, directed patrols and community outreach, but Catlin, who is also a motorcycle patrol officer, says there is another truism: “When motor patrols go down, crashes go up.”
Santa Ana Traffic Enforcement Det. Kelvin Catlin at police headquarters.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge
And Santa Ana, like many departments, is short-staffed in its Traffic Division.
In addition to motor enforcement, the division includes bicycle, pedestrian, and automobile safety programs, the impound lot, and parking enforcement.
On a recent weekday, Catlin was training one of four non-sworn Police Service Officers who have been hired to fill out accident and traffic damage reports, among their duties, freeing up officers to patrol the streets.
Accident prone
On any given day Catlin said he will see 20 collision reports. Annually the police will respond to about 4,000 of those accidents.
Depending on severity, injuries, and other factors, Catlin and his team will investigate the incident. Recently, Catlin says, collisions with pedestrians have gone up, due in part to the lifting of jaywalking penalties. He also says there are about five hit-and-run accidents per day in the city.
The most common accidents Catlin sees are rear-end collisions, “mostly by people on their cell phones.”
“You can’t drive down the road without seeing people on their phones,” he said.
And while laws prohibit all drivers from texting, or using a device by hand while driving, there are not enough officers to enforce every case.
Over the years Santa Ana has had traffic issues that come and go in waves such as “cruising,” which returned with a bang after a state law repealed bans of the practice. Street racing and takeovers have waxed and waned over the years.
DUI checkpoints, at locations data show have a high incidence of impaired driving, remain a popular tool. Santa Ana stages about 10 a year and, according to Catlin, “each one gets at least one or two.” He adds that the legalization of cannabis has increased the number of DUI stops and arrests.
Drivers charged with a first-time DUI face an average of $13,500 in fines and penalties, as well as a suspended license.
Asked which departments he thinks have the greatest daily effect on citizens, Catlin says it’s traffic.
“Personally I think it’s No. 1,” he said. “Generally the homeless and traffic are neck and neck in community impact. It’s just quality of life stuff.”
Five-fatality crash
Then there are the collisions that stay with you.
On April 5, a solo crash in Santa Ana drew widespread regional media attention.
Six youths — two pairs of sisters and a cousin ranging between 13 and 20 years old and a male driver — were injured and five died when the driver lost control on an uphill curve and crashed their Lexus into a tree on the center median on Segerstrom Avenue in southwest Santa Ana. Three of the girls were ejected and the Jaws of Life were needed to extract others.
Catlin recently visited the site, where a memorial was erected around where the car struck the tree, which has since been cut down. He said it was the worst collision scene he has investigated in his time with Santa Ana, recalling how the car was entirely wrapped around the tree.
“You try not to personalize it,” Catlin said. “You try not to be too emotionally attached.”
Instead, Catlin has tried to calculate the physics and geometry and look at the math, science, and forensics. He points on the street to marks where measurements were taken and evidence collected — anything that distracts from the grisly memories and the human costs.
Although excessive speed is suspected, Catlin said the investigation is ongoing as he waits for toxicology reports to determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved.
“We were all required to go to counseling after that,” Catlin said of the accident.
Catlin, who is the lead investigator and is still examining the evidence and communicating with the families, is still visiting with a counselor on this one.
That crash brought the death toll in 2025 to nine.
In the meantime, Catlin says he and the Traffic Unit will push forward trying to promote safety, enforce the rules of the road, and, sadly, investigate the sometimes deadly consequences.
“We just (have to) work harder, that’s what we’ve been doing,” he said.
