After many decades, the Michigan legislature has finally put some teeth into a no ticket quota law that has been on the books for decades. The existing law reads:
“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.