Speeding offences and stop sign violators seem to be the prime target for traffic enforcement officers who are assigned daily ticket quotas.

Here’s an excerpt from the article in the News-Democrat in Southern Illinois:
<blockquote>Look out, leadfoot.

Belleville police are making more traffic stops because of a new rule that they make two self-initiated contacts per 12-hour shift. Those can include any combination of traffic tickets, traffic warnings and field interview reports.

In January 2010, before the requirement was in place for those assigned to patrol, officers wrote 22 speeding tickets and 13 warning tickets. Last month, the first full month of the new rule, officers wrote 210 speeding tickets and 165 warning tickets.

Also, for all of 2010, police made 2,259 traffic stops. In January, the first full month of the two-contacts-per-day standard, police made 1,603 stops — 70 percent of last year’s total, all in one month.

Police Chief William Clay said it’s not just busy work, and it’s not about money from tickets. It’s his initiative to get officers more proactively engaged with the public. He thinks that’s the best way to address crime. In other words, the more contact officers have with the public, the more likely the officers are to find people with drugs, guns or arrest warrants.

And he may be on to something. Though weapons arrests stayed the same, warrant arrests in Belleville were up by 40 percent last month over the same month last year, and cannabis arrests were up 130 percent. Capt. Donald Sax, who provided the statistics, couldn’t say exactly how many of the warrants and cannabis arrests came from traffic stops, but he said that’s where they usually come from.

About a year-and-a-half before Clay began the requirement in December, he had done away with a long-standing 10-ticket-per-month quota because, at a law-enforcement training seminar for administrators, he heard an expert talk about the benefits of leaving the process alone, and not applying any type of quota. Plus, Clay thought the ticket quota took away from officer discretion.<cite>Laura Girresch, News-Democrat</cite>
<blockquote>

What do you think about police ticket quotas?

What is a Speed Camera?

A speed camera is a high tech computer driven device that incorporates a speed radar unit and a very capable digital camera.  The traffic radar takes note of the speed of oncoming vehicles and the camera then takes a high quality photograph of both the vehicle driver and vehicle license plate number.

Modern software then allows this data to be fed into a state driver license or DMV computer.  A traffic ticket is generated and mailed directly to the owner of the vehicle.

Problems with Speed Camera Detectors

The most glaring problem with a speed camera is that there is no human operator.  The camera can make mistakes and these mistakes cannot be observed or corrected by a human in charge of the instrument.  Additionally, the camera cannot determine if the driver is the registered owner of the car or if someone else is driving.  This system quite naturally sends tickets to a fair amount of car owners when in fact they were not the driver of the car.

Learn the Location of Speed Camera Detectors

The best thing you can do to avoid receiving a speed camera detector ticket is to learn the locations of those cameras in your area and avoid them.  If you must travel within their range then drive below the speed limit.

Another idea is to buy software applications for your iPhone or other hand held device that keep a database of speed camera locations and warns you when you are driving near those locations.

Speed cameras are a valuable tool for law enforcement.  However, they are not without problem.  Learn the speed camera locations in your area and share them with others or share them here by commenting on this article.

HARDING TWP. – A 40 percent increase in the number of traffic summonses issued by the 12 -member township police force in the last year has the Township Committee concerned.

Mayor Marshall Bartlett and members of the Township Committee said they have been approached by residents concerned with an overzealous police force.

Bartlett expressed concern at about the amount of tickets being issued at a police presentation to the committee in December where the Township Committee learned of the 2,840 police stops in 2010, 87 percent or 2,470 resulted in tickets and 1,600 of those were for speeding. The numbers reflect a 40 percent jump in tickets over the previous year.

Bartlett addressed the issue again Tuesday night at the Harding Township Civic Association’s annual Meet the Mayor night with about 30 residents at Town Hall.

Township Committeeman Nicolas Platt said the township is gaining an unwanted reputation.

“I am uncomfortable. Is this the town we want to live in, where we are getting stopped all the time? Why aren’t we issuing more warnings? There is no ticket quota here, so why is there a 40 percent spike? It’s very concerning to me,” he said.

“They (the police) are doing this on their own. We can give them some direction,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a town that has this “gotcha” mentality, and I don’t like seeing a 40 percent jump,”

Later, after the meeting, he said, “We were all surprised by the increase in ticketing which seems endemic in municipal police forces.”

Bartlett opened Tuesday’s discussion by saying “We have a fine police department. They do a great job, and we can’t control their day to day activities, but this is concerning to us.”

Township Committeeman Ned Ward said that he and Platt serve as liaisons to the police department, and said that, according to Police Chief Kevin Gaffney, there have been no issues with manpower within the department since the number of officers was reduced.

“He has indicated to us that they are meeting all of their obligations without difficulties. We have 12 now. If we wanted to add 13, 14, or 15, it would be very costly,” Ward said.

“But, I am also very concerned about the spike (in summonses), but I also think we are on thin ice. We can’t tell them not to stop as many people as they are stopping, but I think a ticket for a broken taillight is stretching it, in my opinion,” he said.

“But, we can’t tell them only to stop someone if they are going over five miles per hour over the speed limit,” he said.

Ward also said that the county prosecutor’s office has been asked to look at the department to ascertain if there are any aggressive enforcement issues.

“We are trying to keep this process transparent, but the fact is that the number of summonses are up by 40 percent, and those are primarily for speeding,” he said.

Bartlett said the issue may be tied to the township’s latest crop of what he called “younger and more aggressive” officers.

“We have told them that we want them to enforce the law, but it’s a big, big increase,” he said. “And it’s safe to say that people just driving through town are at higher risk than residents.”

Bartlett said the committee has indicated to Gaffney that this is not the way the township wants to raise revenue.

Committeewoman Regina Egea said the chief has indicated that the frequent stops are part of a comprehensive “crime prevention strategy” to keep undesirable elements out of town.

Some residents suggested the newly imposed 25 mph speed limit in New Vernon center may be a reason for the spike but Platt said that was not the only area where stops and subsequent ticket writing have increased.

Ward said he has asked the police department about why the big jump in tickets and has been told “they are doing their job.”

He paused and then added, “Of course, then you think, “oh, so before you weren’t?””

Glen Alpin

Speaking on another controversial topic- the Glen Alpin mansion that the township owns- Bartlett said there are few answers.

“We are good and stuck, but it’s not for a lack of trying,” he said.

He said he plans to meet with Jill Hawk, the new head of Jockey Hollow, to see if a federal takeover would be feasible.

“We are constantly working and thinking of ways to make something work there,” he said.

“The New Vernon Cemetery is full. People like me can’t get in, so what about a cemetery at Glen Alpin?” Bartlett said.

“We could have a rule that the tomb stones can only be two inches high or something like that,” he said. He said that since grant funds were used for the purchase, however, that may not be feasible.

Primrose Preserve

The 129 acre tract, located off Brookside Drive South, the mayor said, is another ongoing challenge.

“The Trust for Public Land and the Harding Land Trust are trying to raise money to buy the land. Morris County gave us $2.5 million, and those groups are looking for new funding partners,” he said.

He said the town would contribute $700,000 in Green Acres money, but said that’s still not enough.

Touching on the subject of revitalizing the “downtown” historic New Vernon area, Egea said a full report should be made available to the Township Committee within the next few months. The committee formed a subcommittee to explore options, including attracting businesses to town, improving lighting and parking and making the building permit process easier for potential businesses to relocated to town.

Policin e Harding Twp. New Jersey have a ticket quota. Here’s the original story.

Chief Inspector Stephane Lemieux refused to indicate precisely how many tickets each police officer must issue each month, but defended her position by saying that when the quota number goes up, highways traffic deaths in and around Montreal go down. Presumably speeding offences lessen as the ticket numbers rise, thus making for fewer accidents and safer highways.

For several years the Police Brotherhood Union has proclaimed that Montreal police officers do in fact have a ticket quota, and that on a regular basis those ticket quota numbers are increased. Union Chief Yves Francoeur says that the ticket quotas are simply a way to raise more money for the city, something which Chief Inspector Lemieux denies vehemently. “We don’t want to hand out so many tickets that we become a bank machine,” said Lemieux.

Who do you believe?

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However, as a result of ticket quotas some strange things occur as officer strive to meet the quota system or be reprimanded or fired for not doing so.  Afterall, a police officer has to enforce the laws no matter who the violator is, right?  Speeding offences need to be handled as a serious matter, and part of each officers job is to write traffic tickets.

But even to himself?

St. Andrzej Tymanski of the Bialogard, Poland police department recently realized that he was not going to meet his ticket quota.  So he did what he had to do.  He ticked himself for speeding.  Sgt. Tyamanski said that he was not willing to ticket someone who he did not think deserved the ticket just to meet his quota, so rather than hurt an unsuspecting motorist he decided instead to ticket himself.  He got out of his police car and walked on the railroad tracks, which apparently is against the law in Bialogard.  Then he wrote himself a ticket for the offence.

The fine assessed to this ticket was about $7.80 USD, which Sgt. Tymanski paid.

Good police officers are hard to find sometimes, but Sgt. Tymanski certainly is one of them!

A new department policy institutes a 20 ticket per officer per month ticket quota in this small town. Officers are given no credit for being busy on other police duties or for taking vacation days or other time off, according to Lieutenant Daniel Baruti.

Chief of Police John Scuncio and Town Manager William Di Libero both acknowledge the ticket quota policy and did so only after an email disclosing it’s existence was circulated to local the local newspaper. Both defended the ticket quota as a management tool intended to increase police officer productivity. They also indicated that the quota breaks no laws and they have no intention of modifying the policy.

Lt. Baruti said that officer productivity numbers had fallen off of late and that the town manager and members of the town council were not happy about this. Officer productivity numbers will be forwarded to the town council for their review, he went on to say. Lt. Baruti said the department intends to expand the numerical quota policy to cover such things as arrests in the near future.

Town Manager Scuncio said that this policy was instituted to effectively deal with a single officer who practically does no work and that month after month this officer writes no tickets whatsoever. This creates problems within the department that needed to be addressed. Disciplining this officer would be difficult due to contractual protections that are provided to Rhode Island police officers.

Captain David Ricciarelli, who is the assistant director of the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy, says he knows of no other town besides Hopkinton that has a ticket quota. He went on to say that ticket quotas diminish public confidence in the police.

Does your town have a ticket quota? Do you think ticket quotas are a good thing? We’d love to hear from you.

“A police officer shall not be required to issue a predetermined or specified number of citations for violations of this act or of local ordinances substantially corresponding to provisions of this act, including parking or standing violations.”

The new bill, Michigan House Bill 5287, was recently passed by both the Michigan senate and house adds this simple but direct language to the existing law:

“A police officer’s performance evaluation system shall not require a predetermined or specified number of citations to be issued.”

The tireless work of State Representative Richard Le Blanc is largely responsible for this new law. The existing law has effectively offered a loop hole to police management as long as they instituted a ticket quota number, but considered it part of a larger performance evaluation. This new language puts a stop to that type of interpretation.

Ticket quotas serve to undermine the public’s confidence in their police force and often result in officers performing routine traffic functions to the exclusion of other more important aspects of their job. In addition, some people had expressed concern that with financial difficulties looming for many municipalities that ticket quotas would be ramped up to add income to the city coffers.

Speeding Ticket Informal Hearing

The first phase of the court process for a contested speeding offences ticket in Michigan is an informal hearing. This hearing is typically held before a court magistrate as opposed to a district court judge, although in some district courts the judge also hears traffic matters. You must notify the court that you wish to contest the ticket and an informal hearing will be set up.

This hearing, which is attended under a court subpoena, brings together the police officer who wrote the traffic citation, any witnesses that there might be, and you.

Generally speaking, you have nothing to lose by requesting or attending an informal hearing. There is always the chance that the police officer will not appear, in which case you can ask the magistrate or judge for a dismissal of the charge against you.

Even if you are found responsible at the hearing there generally are no additional fines or fees associated with this determination of responsibility. Just offer up the facts and circumstances as you remember them, stay calm, be truthful and offer any mitigating circumstances to the magistrate. For instance, if you think you are the victim of a ticket quota or other improper selective enforcement you should mention this to the judge or magistrate.

If you are found responsible for the infraction you will have the option to request a Formal Hearing to have the matter reviewed by a judge. Keep in mind that the police officer can also request a formal hearing if you prevail at the informal hearing, although this rarely occurs.

Remember, had you used the Trapster iPhone Application you may have avoided the ticket altogether!

If officer failed to meet the ticket quota standard they were placed on a 90 day probation period, denied pay raises and potentially could be demoted or dismissed.

City officials in the town of 10,000 residents said that aggressive traffic enforcement was a priority in the town of only 2.2 square miles. Certain streets in the city were convenient cut through short cuts for vehicles traveling from adjacent major highways. Cur through traffic was responsible for committing many speeding offences and other traffic violations. Police Chief Robert T. Murray said that Falls Church is blessed with a low crime rate and that as a result officers hired by the police department always understood that writing traffic tickets was a high priority.

Chief Murray said that the ticket quota system was designed to track officer time and that in his estimation officers should have no difficulty meeting the ticket quotas during their shift. He reports no citizen complaints stemming from the ticket quota and is pleased with the performance of his officers.

Although the use of ticket quotas was discarded by most police administrators as being an inaccurate way to measure the performance of a police officer, it seems to be working in Falls Church. However, Officer Markus Bristol, who is the Vice President of the police union, disagreed.

t’s just sickening to me. I deal with the general public; the vast majority are hard-working.” Bristol said he wanted to spend more time establishing contacts with the growing Latino community, “but I’ve got to get out there and write those tickets.

What do you think about police traffic ticket quotas? Should the police be using their free patrol time more effectively? Is selective enforcement of traffic violations just another word for a quota? We’d love to hear your comments on this issue.