SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

This is the story of one policeman who tells how he was fired for not meeting his quota for making arrests:

http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/07/24/how-quotas-pervert-police-priorities-fir

I wonder how common this practice is?

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

It doesn't surprise me at all and I would be willing to bet it was encouraged by the city government as a revenue enhancement tool. All government entities are struggling to acquire more revenue and fines are an easy way to add money to their coffers.

SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

If one police officer stops 3 people per day, and if the average fine is $100, that police officer could bring in $6,000 for the city every month, if he worked 20 days during each month.

No wonder cities have ticket quotas.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Good for the cities, assuming everyone who's getting a ticket is guilty then they need to quit whining. If they stop raising dollars through lawbreakers then you'll pay more in taxes so let'em right the tickets.

DennisK Loc: Pickle City,Illinois

The only problem with this is,a cop can find something wrong with either your driving habits or your vehicle most anytime.Are they breaking the law by stopping you? No,but they are getting nit picky.

imntrt1 Loc: St. Louis

It is more common than we would like to believe. We had a requirement of Five Tickets per month...Doesn't sound like a lot but....If I made Five Felony arrests in a month...and only 1 or 2 tickets and another officer wrote 5 tickets and made no felony arrests...He got a higher evaluation that month. Another way they increase revenue is to make certain areas "Double Fine Zones" In my last years on the street, my ticket writing dropped dramatically....but my arrest and other areas of performance did not....I was training new officers and as a field training officer I had a great deal of influence on new hires. I was taken off Field Training...With 30 plus years of experience...because I did not write enough tickets. Part of reason for my ticket count drop was because I was giving the ticket writing over to the guy I was training. You could almost count on an order to increase ticket writing when the revenues from sales taxes were not as high as projected in the City Budget. When I was trained, I was told that a traffic stop should be a learning experience for the violator. I found that an explanation of the violation and an example of the consequences for continued violation of that particular violation are often more than a fine or a ticket. I had a good memory though, and if I saw certain people continue to violate the same traffic laws you can be sure they were ticketed or arrested...depending on the severity. Are there badge heavy cops...sure...are there MORE decent, caring, professional cops our there...Absolutely. And for the record....I found that I could follow anyone, for a mile or two and observe several traffic violations committed by them. There are enough traffic laws on the books in almost every city in the nation, that ANY DRIVER violates at least one law each and every time they get behind the wheel and drive somewhere.