The police in Hopington, Rholde island have a ticket “target”, not a ticket quota. Right!
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.