In 2004, police in Falls Church, Virginia had a ticket quota that required them to make three arrests or write three traffic tickets during each of their twelve hour police road patrol shifts. The irony is that a traffic ticket counted as significantly toward their monthly quota as did an arrest for armed robbery!
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.