Tennessee Highway Patrol busted for illegal ticket quotas
Click to play audio: NYPD Secret Tape Has Police Pressing Ticket Quotas
New York Times
9 Sept 2010
For nearly every New Yorker who has received a summons in the city — caught at a checkpoint monitoring seat-belt use, or approached by a small army of police officers descending on illegally parked cars — quotas are a maddening fact of life.
No matter how often the Police Department denies the existence of quotas, many New Yorkers will swear that officers are sometimes forced to write a certain number of tickets in a certain amount of time.
Now, in a secret recording made in a police station in Brooklyn, there is persuasive evidence of the existence of quotas.
The hourlong recording, which a lawyer provided this week to The New York Times, was made by a police supervisor during a meeting in April of supervisors from the 81st Precinct.
The recording makes clear that precinct leaders were focused on raising the number of summonses issued — even as the Police Department had already begun an inquiry into whether crime statistics in that precinct were being manipulated.
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, did not respond Thursday to three e-mails and three phone calls requesting comments on the tape. He was sent extensive excerpts from the recording.
On the tape, a police captain, Alex Perez, can be heard warning his top commanders that their officers must start writing more summonses or face consequences. Captain Perez offered a precise number and suggested a method. He said that officers on a particular shift should write — as a group — 20 summonses a week: five each for double-parking, parking at a bus stop, driving without a seat belt and driving while using a cellphone.
“You, as bosses, have to demand this and have to count it,” Captain Perez said, citing pressure from top police officials. At another point, Captain Perez emphasized his willingness to punish officers who do not meet the targets, saying, “I really don’t have a problem firing people.”
The recording is the latest in a series of audiotapes from the precinct that have raised concerns among community leaders and residents of the neighborhoods it covers, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Those Brooklyn residents contend that the tapes show a department fixated on the number of summonses and low-level arrests, and that the result is a pattern of harassment.
Critics say this is the flip side of CompStat, the Police Department analysis system that has been credited with bringing down major crimes but faulted as creating a numbers-driven culture.
Police officials have long denied the existence of a quota system, but they add that they do have “performance goals” they expect officers to meet.
A previous set of recordings of station-house roll calls was made in 2008 and 2009 by Patrol Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who has filed a lawsuit against the department claiming retaliation after he reported accusations to the Internal Affairs Bureau.
Officer Schoolcraft accused supervisors in the precinct of manipulating crime statistics and enforcing ticket and arrest quotas, which are a violation of state labor law.
The accusations are at the center of a broad internal investigation of how the precinct recorded crime statistics. Amid the inquiry, Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello, who had been the commander at the 81st Precinct, was transferred in July to a transit district in the Bronx.
The latest recording was made on April 1, as the internal inquiry was under way, and after some of Officer Schoolcraft’s allegations had become public in The Daily News and The New York Post.
Inspector Mauriello invoked Officer Schoolcraft’s name at the April 1 meeting, as he warned precinct leaders about “rats coming out of here wearing tape recorders.”
The person who made the recording gave it this week to Officer Schoolcraft’s lawyer, Jon L. Norinsberg, in an effort to show that Officer Schoolcraft, who has been suspended from the force, was not alone.
“He wanted to do anything in his power to support Schoolcraft, and I think this is his way of corroborating Schoolcraft’s allegations,” said Mr. Norinsberg, who said the new recordings would be used as evidence in his case. “It is evidence the quota system is ongoing. Subsequent to the public revelations that have taken place, it’s business as usual in the N.Y.P.D.”
At one point in the new tapes, Inspector Mauriello introduced Captain Perez, who the supervisor said was second in command, as someone who “wants his summonses.”
For nearly every New Yorker who has received a summons in the city — caught at a checkpoint monitoring seat-belt use, or approached by a small army of police officers descending on illegally parked cars — quotas are a maddening fact of life.
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, did not respond Thursday to three e-mails and three phone calls requesting comments on the tape. He was sent extensive excerpts from the recording.
On the tape, a police captain, Alex Perez, can be heard warning his top commanders that their officers must start writing more summonses or face consequences. Captain Perez offered a precise number and suggested a method. He said that officers on a particular shift should write — as a group — 20 summonses a week: five each for double-parking, parking at a bus stop, driving without a seat belt and driving while using a cellphone.
“You, as bosses, have to demand this and have to count it,” Captain Perez said, citing pressure from top police officials. At another point, Captain Perez emphasized his willingness to punish officers who do not meet the targets, saying, “I really don’t have a problem firing people.”
The recording is the latest in a series of audiotapes from the precinct that have raised concerns among community leaders and residents of the neighborhoods it covers, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Those Brooklyn residents contend that the tapes show a department fixated on the number of summonses and low-level arrests, and that the result is a pattern of harassment.
Critics say this is the flip side of CompStat, the Police Department analysis system that has been credited with bringing down major crimes but faulted as creating a numbers-driven culture.
Police officials have long denied the existence of a quota system, but they add that they do have “performance goals” they expect officers to meet.
A previous set of recordings of station-house roll calls was made in 2008 and 2009 by Patrol Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who has filed a lawsuit against the department claiming retaliation after he reported accusations to the Internal Affairs Bureau.
Officer Schoolcraft accused supervisors in the precinct of manipulating crime statistics and enforcing ticket and arrest quotas, which are a violation of state labor law.
The accusations are at the center of a broad internal investigation of how the precinct recorded crime statistics. Amid the inquiry, Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello, who had been the commander at the 81st Precinct, was transferred in July to a transit district in the Bronx.
The latest recording was made on April 1, as the internal inquiry was under way, and after some of Officer Schoolcraft’s allegations had become public in The Daily News and The New York Post.
Inspector Mauriello invoked Officer Schoolcraft’s name at the April 1 meeting, as he warned precinct leaders about “rats coming out of here wearing tape recorders.”
The person who made the recording gave it this week to Officer Schoolcraft’s lawyer, Jon L. Norinsberg, in an effort to show that Officer Schoolcraft, who has been suspended from the force, was not alone.
“He wanted to do anything in his power to support Schoolcraft, and I think this is his way of corroborating Schoolcraft’s allegations,” said Mr. Norinsberg, who said the new recordings would be used as evidence in his case. “It is evidence the quota system is ongoing. Subsequent to the public revelations that have taken place, it’s business as usual in the N.Y.P.D.”
At one point in the new tapes, Inspector Mauriello introduced Captain Perez, who the supervisor said was second in command, as someone who “wants his summonses.”
“They’re counting seat belts and cellphones; they’re counting double parkers and bus stops,” Captain Perez said, referring to types of low-level summonses typically tracked by the department’s TrafficStat program. “If day tours contributed with five seat belts and five cellphones a week, five double-parkers and five bus stops a week, O.K.
“Your goal is five in each of these categories, not a difficult task to accomplish on Monday,” he added. “If it’s not accomplished by Monday, you’ve got to follow up with it on Tuesday. But there’s no reason it can’t be done by Thursday. So whatever I get by Friday, Saturday, Sunday is gravy. I’m not looking to break records here, but there is no reason we should be losing this number by 30 a week.”
Losing by 30 a week refers to a decline in the activity as reflected in departmental CompStat reports, which tally the weekly summons totals and the year-to-date totals for every command, said the person who made the recording. He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation and of risking his standing with people in the department.
Asked if the conversations were evidence of a quota, he said, “Absolutely,” adding that he had seen evidence of it in several boroughs.
He added that his concerns about the precinct’s integrity led him to begin recording meetings, well before he had ever met Officer Schoolcraft.
Roy T. Richter, the president of the Captains Endowment Association, said he did not believe that what Captain Perez, a member of his union, said “articulates a quota.”
From several references in the new recording, and in a separate recording made after April 1 and given to Officer Schoolcraft’s lawyer, it is clear that Inspector Mauriello and other supervisors were out to push underproducing officers — and punish them if they did not deliver.
“What I plan on doing — three cops are getting bounced to midnights, and three midnight cops are getting bounced to day tours,” Captain Perez said in the April 1 meeting.
“I don’t care about people’s families, if they don’t want to do their job,” he said. “Their paycheck is taking care of their family. If they don’t realize that, they’re going to change their tour; they’re going to start being productive if they want a tour that works for their family.”
He explained how punishment for failure would proceed.
“After I bounce you to a different platoon for inactivity, the next thing is to put you on paper, start rating you below standards and look to fire you,” Captain Perez said on the tape.
“I really don’t have a problem firing people,” he continued. “I don’t need to carry you. So that’s the attitude that you’ve got to sell to the cops.”
At one point in the second recording, made after the tapes by Officer Schoolcraft were put online in May by The Village Voice, Inspector Mauriello told supervisors to get officers out of squad cars and onto the streets.
People in the community “think cops are on the take,” Inspector Mauriello said. “I know it ain’t true, but that’s what they say: ‘Man, I need help. I got drug dealers in front of my house, and they’re in their car and they’re not getting out, not moving them.’ ”
He also told supervisors not to emphasize specific numbers, even while pressing their officers for more activity. And at one point, he made clear the pressure he felt from his bosses.
“I’m going to get beat up,” Inspector Mauriello said. “Everybody took a shot at me at CompStat, like a piñata last time, so I’m expecting that again.”
Because of an editing error, an article and a headline on Friday about a Brooklyn police precinct that appeared to be using quotas for summonses described incorrectly the number that officers were expected to write each week. In a recording of a meeting at the precinct, supervisors said that officers on a particular shift should write — as a group — 20 summonses a week; they did not say that each individual officer should write 20 a week. An article about the police’s response to the accusations is on Page A15.
Dragonator Comment: But no quota for the arrest of the US Govt and NYC Govt leaders who murdered dozens of NYPD cops and perped the terrorist massacres in NY City on 11 September 2001.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Ticket Quota Uncovered
By The Newspaper on July 10, 2009
Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) troopers are punished for failing to issue a specific number of speeding tickets in at least one part of the state.
Attorney Fletcher Long provided WTVF-TV with a copy of a memo THP Sergeant Clifford M. Babits posted on the wall (PDF) of the Troop C station in Robertson County.
”I can no longer justify fives on evaluations for troopers not producing activity,” Babits wrote. “I require three things. 1. Answer the radio, 2. Work your crashes, and 3. WRITE TICKETS. I take some of the blame for not properly motivating ya’ll in the area of activity. Overall activity last year (2008) was well below the district average… Because activity plays such a high part of an everyday road trooper’s requirement, it is going to weigh heavy on yearly evaluation scores.”
These scores, with ‘five’ being the highest rating, are key to winning promotions, extra pay and the most desirable types of assignments. According to the memo, scoring is based solely on the number of tickets issued, although other factors such as routinely failing to follow orders can result in a lowered score. Babits set six hundred tickets a year, or three tickets per day, as the bare minimum.
“Let me stress I am not putting a quota on anyone,” Babits wrote. “I don’t care if a trooper writes below the 600 mark, it is his or her evaluation score, not mine. If a trooper turns in 600 citations per year, his or her overall evaluation will not be above the average score of three… I must be able to justify giving a trooper a five. Low activity is a killer.”
It takes 800 citations per year, or four tickets per day, to earn the top score. A rating of four is earned by writing 700 tickets per year or 3.5 per day. Those who fail toexceed the average score of three are punished by not being allowed to earn time-and-a-half pay on overtime assignments.
“Effective immediately, a trooper that does not produce above average activity (17.5 tickets per week) will not be able to work grant overtime in my county,” Babits wrote.
Tennessee Highway Patrol officials deny any quota exists. Many state police forces use the average number of tickets written by troops or stations to encourage a steady year-on-year increase in the number of speeding tickets issued.
THP Official Answers Ticket Quota Questions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - NewsChannel5 Investigates confronted Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Mike Walker about a controversial memo and whether troopers target drivers with expensive tickets just to make a quota.
Maggie Duncan with the Tennessee Police Chiefs Association, of which the THP is a member, said putting such a policy to paper is unheard of.
"It's extremely bad policy and it's unprofessional," said Duncan.
Attorney Fletcher Long said this THP memo proved otherwise.
"They've always maintained they don't have a quota," said Long. "It's appalling - absolutely appalling."
Long had argued in court on behalf of clients that ticket quotas do exist, but could not prove it. He believed this memo will give them what he needs to challenge traffic tickets on grounds they were written only to meet a quota.
"They are only supposed to pull motorists over who violate the law - not the motorist they have to have because it's the end of the shift and they haven't met their 600 monthly tickets yet," said Long.
THP Col. Mike Walker said troopers do not write tickets to satisfy a quota in response to Sgt. Babit's memo.
"We don't have quotas. We don't assign numbers to troopers," said Walker. "That's a Sergeant trying to put something down for the troopers that he's going to look at."
Walker objected to the memo, but said it was not evidence of a secret quota system in the THP.
He said Babit, who remains on the job, acted alone.
"I don't know why he did it. I couldn't explain it - you'd have to ask him," said Walker.
Babit declined to talk on camera. By phone he admitted to writing the memo and said: "I only did what I was told. I sent what I wrote up the chain of command for approval. They did and told me to distribute it."
Col. Walker disputed Babit's comment.
"This came from him. It did not come from the district captain or anybody above that level," said Walker.
In 2001 Robertson County ranked 4th in the state with 15,673 tickets written and by 2007 - that rank had slipped to 17th with fewer than half that total, a big drop in traffic ticket revenues.
In the past, state lawmakers have considered legislation to make ticket quotas illegal. It's possible the issue will come up again next session.
What Really Motivates The Highway Patrol?
SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. - A memo seems to spell out a ticket quota policy for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. NewsChannel5 Investigates found proof that quotas do exist in Middle Tennessee.
Law enforcement supervisors at every level said quotas are bad policy and they insist quotas do not exist.
A memo was posted at the THP headquarters in Springfield for all troopers to see and the message in black and white seems crystal clear - write more tickets or else.
Sgt. Cliff Babits name is on the memo posted this past February. Troopers are warned the number of tickets written will influence their evaluations and that ‘low activity is a killer.'
The author writes, ‘Let me stress I am not putting a quota on anyone.' But on the very next page there's a three to five point scoring system.
Troopers are rewarded for a higher score, 600 citations per year = 60 tickets per month. This is average and average is 3.
Then 700 citations per year = 70 tickets per month. This is slightly above average and that could get a trooper a 4.
Finally, 800 citations per year = 80 tickets per month. This along with excelling in your other duties can justify a 5.
Attorney Fletcher Long obtained a copy of the memo from an angry client. He's long argued in court that quotas exist with no success, but now he has proof.
"It's appalling. Absolutely appalling," said Long. "It's just very clear here that's the quota system."
Perhaps most disturbing to those who've seen the memo - this paragraph: ‘Effective immediately, a trooper that does not produce above average activity (17.5 tickets per week) will not be able to work grant overtime in my county. If a trooper doesn't earn it, he or she will not get it!'
So was THP sergeant Cliff Babits pressured by higher-ups to produce more tickets? If so - how widespread is the quota policy?
NewsChannel5 Investigates put those questions to Col. Mike Walker, head of the state highway patrol; you'll be surprised to hear what Babits has to say about the memo. That part of the story Tuesday at 10 p.m.
Original PDF backup of THP memo
See also:
Tennessee Highway Patrol busted for illegal ticket quotas
KPD leaks illegal quota memos in Knoxville TN
The Dragonator walks the talk, how to file felony charges against your military commanders, then get offered a job working for Secretary of War Dick Cheney at the Pentagon.
Highway deaths fall to lowest level since 1950, police state goes berserk arresting all motorists as career criminals
Ex-officers seek to stop traffic grants
By Daniel Borunda
EL PASO TIMES
11/01/2011
Five former El Paso police officers have filed a request for an injunction against city officials, alleging police have an illegal quota system for traffic tickets.
The ex-officers claim they were forced to resign, but City Manager Joyce Wilson said the officers resigned when faced with termination linked to allegations of falsified time sheets.
The resignations come after an investigation began in late summer regarding the misappropriation of overtime linked to the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, or STEP, grant. The investigation has since expanded beyond traffic grants.
A week ago, Lt. Alfred Lowe, head of the Crimes Against Persons Unit, was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into overtime regarding a state grant paying for anti-gang operations.
The petition for an injunction was filed last week in the 34th District Court and seeks to stop the El Paso Police Department from using state traffic enforcement grants and alleges that a quota system is being used.
A hearing date is pending on the petition filed by ex-officers Luis Acosta, Ana Reza, Jorge Arellano, Michael Arzaga and Luis Alonzo Ortiz against Police Chief Greg Allen, Wilson and Mayor John Cook.
Each officer was with the department for more than 10 years until their resignations in late August and September. They are represented by lawyers Stuart Leeds and Theresa Caballero.
Leeds and Caballero provided the El Paso Times with a copy of an internal police email where a traffic sergeant complains to officers that not enough citations are being issued as part of a Click-It-or-Ticket seat-belt enforcement grant.
The May 26 email by Sgt. Jack Matthews of the Traffic Division stated "the performance standard set forth in the grant is a minimum of three seat-belt violations per hour of work per officer. If you think that you cannot meet this goal during your five-hour shift, then do not work the grant ... those that do not produce what is required will not be considered to work any traffic-related grants in the future."
Matthews was a past grant administrator, according to city documents, and retired Aug. 20, about the time the grants investigation was under way. Matthews has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Leeds said the email is proof that a quota system, though using a different name, is used by the Police Department in violation of state law.
"This proves this is all about money," Leeds said. "It is not about law enforcement and criminal justice. The people of El Paso are being hunted" for traffic citations.
Police and city officials denied the allegations. Police officials have said performance standards are not a quota system.
"These attorneys are representing their clients who resigned voluntarily in lieu of termination," Wilson said in a statement.
"The El Paso Police Department does not have a quota system and the issue at hand has nothing to do with quotas -- it has to do with falsifying time records. The lawsuit is without merit and our legal team is preparing a response."
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.
Here We Go Again…. “Yes, We Have No Quotas”
by Lawrence Taylor attorney at law
I’ve mentioned in the past that police agencies across the country use DUI arrest quotas — and almost uniformly deny the practice. See, for example, DUI Quotas, "Yes, We Have No DUI Quotas" and "Inside Edition" Documents DUI Quotas Across U.S..
The latest example of this supposedly non-existent practice:
Drunk-Driving Quota Case May Lead to Similar Efforts ElsewhereSo the police chief insists that "the department does not use quotas"…and that the memo was just "perhaps not the best wording"? Hmmmm…..it’s hard to see how "it could be misinterpreted": the departmental order that cops have to produce "two to four citations per hour" sounds pretty clear to me.
Baltimore, MD. Jan. 6 – Even as prosecutors weigh an appeal of a Howard County judge’s decision to throw out drunken-driving charges and rule that they were tied to illegal citation quotas, defense lawyers are considering whether the same defense might apply to past or current cases.
District Court Judge Sue-Ellen Hantman’s ruling in a case against an Ellicott City woman has raised questions on both sides — as well as eyebrows around the legal community…
Hantman said the charges against Katie Majorie Quackenbush, 22, were linked to an illegal quota — a ruling based on a memorandum that police have said was intended to describe the requirements of a federal grant that paid overtime for officers to target drunken and aggressive drivers through "saturation patrols."
"I find any evidence in this case to be inadmissible," she said, according to a recording of her Thursday ruling, and that ended the prosecution. Nevertheless, the judge indicated that "I don’t think saturation patrols are in and of themselves illegal, merely the quotas."…
The police chief said a memo to officers that called for two to four citations per hour contained, “in retrospect, not the best wording,” and conceded that he “could see how it could be misinterpreted.” He said the department does not use quotas and had revised the memo.
The memo also told the officers on the drunken-driving and aggressive-driving saturation patrols that they usually produce “at or above these amounts.”
The federal funds come from the National Traffic Safety Administration to the state, according to Buel Young, a spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Administration. Jurisdictions can apply for them.
Interesting that the federal grant appears to have required police agencies to use quotas….
COP.
2. to steal; filch. 3. to buy (narcotics). 4. cop out, a. to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out. 5. cop a plea, a. to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence. b. to plead guilty to a lesser charge; plea-bargain.
-Random House Unabridged Dictionary.
THE DRAGONATER WINS IN TRAFFIC COURT AT DEALS GAP, RAISES SPEED LIMIT TO 65 MPH ON THE DRAGON - NOLLE PROSEQUI BY BLOUNT COUNTY ATTORNEY GENERAL. NO TESTIMONY, HEARING NOR TRIAL WHATSOEVER. 60 MPH SPEEDING TICKET DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE, COSTS PAID BY THE STATE, IN BLOUNT COUNTY GENERAL SESSIONS COURT WITH JUDGE BREWER. THP TROOPER RANDALL HUCKEBY ADMITTED ON VIDEOTAPE DURING TRAFFIC STOP THAT ALL SPEEDING TICKETS NORTHBOUND ON US129 AT MILE MARKER 0.5 ARE FEDERAL JURISDICTION, NOT STATE JURISDICTION (VIDEO BY THE DRAGONATER). HUCKEBY WAS ALSO CAUGHT ON VIDEO SPEEDING AT 60 MPH ON THE DRAGON, WITHOUT THE MANDATORY EMERGENCY LIGHTS AND SIREN REQUIRED FOR IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION (VIDEO BY THE DRAGONATER). TDOT ADMITTED IN WRITING THAT THE MANDATORY TRAFFIC ENGINEERING SURVEY SPEED AUDIT WAS NEVER PERFORMED, IN VIOLATION OF TN CODE, THUS THE POSTED 30 MPH SPEED LIMIT ON THE DRAGON REVERTS TO THE DEFAULT 65 MPH IN TN CODE. THE DRAGONATER ALSO MADE VIDEO OF TROOPER HUCKEBY SPEEDING UP TO 60 MPH ON THE DRAGON IN A 30 MPH ZONE, WITHOUT MANDATORY EMERGENCY LIGHTS NOR SIREN, IN VIOLATION OF TN CODE, AND PERJURY IN HIS PERSONNEL FILE, WHICH SHOWED HIS $100,000+ SALARY. 2007 TDOT SAFETY AUDIT REPORT CONFESSED THAT THP'S JOB IS TO BAN ALL COMMERCIAL BUSINESSES ON THE DRAGON, SO THP TICKETS INCREASED 11,400% IN BLOUNT COUNTY. THP'S STALKER RADAR OPERATOR MANUAL CONFESSED THAT RADAR CANNOT MEASURE THE SPEED OF VEHICLES WITHIN 18 MPH OF ACTUAL SPEED. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FULL EVIDENCE FILE. UPDATE 7 MARCH 2011
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