League City Police Chief accused of illegal traffic ticket quotas
October 28, 2011
League City Police Chief Michael Jez and one of his captains stand accused of creating illegal traffic ticket quotas based on a formal complaint sent to the offices of the State Attorney General, the Galveston County District Attorney’s office and League City officials.
On Oct. 19, League City Patrol Officer Sean Arena sent a letter reporting “a violation of the law by my direct supervisors (Police) Chief Mike Jez and Captain Charles Slade” for establishing a traffic quota.
Arena is a six-year-veteran of the force and president of the League City Police Officers Association.
At a council meeting Tuesday (Oct. 25), Mayor Tim Paulissen and the council met with city attorney Arnold Polanco for more than three hours in closed session to discuss the issue. After about an hour, officials called Chief Jez behind closed doors to answer questions.
Back in open meeting, the council directed Polanco to take action “as directed in closed session”. When later asked what the council instructed him to do, Palanco declined to comment.
In his letter, Arena says Captain Slade met with Patrol Commanders in mid-October to discuss “traffic productivity issues”. Due to a decline in the number of tickets, all officers would now be required to write at least 10 citations a month or face disciplinary action.
Arena said the quota drew complaints from patrol officers the department policy was a “revenue grab” and clearly illegal.
On Wednesday (Oct. 26) the Bay Area Citizen contacted Police Chief Mike Jez to ask if the allegations were true, but he failed to return calls for comment.
Although Arena is President of the police union, his letter stressed he was speaking only for himself and not the LCPOA. He also said he was afraid reporting the illegal quota would cause police administrators to seek revenge.
“I am very concerned over retaliation, intimidation or discipline by members of the Police administration over coming forward with what I believe is a violation of the law,” Arena wrote.
When contacted by the Bay Area Citizen, Arenas deferred to his attorney, who also declined to comment. Arena is represented by attorneys Dan Kreiger and Greg Cagle on behalf of the Texas Municipal Police Association.
See also:
KPD cops accuse KPD of illegal quotas in Knoxville TN
TN Highway Patrol has an illegal quota of 700 tickets per trooper per year
THP increases biker tickets 11,400% on the Dragon
Knox County mayors pass state law banning police quotas
"It is illegal for law enforcement agencies to issue quotas for citations or arrests of individuals.... The Fraternal Order of Police strongly disagrees with this illegal action and respectfully requests you rescind this action of supervisors at the Knoxville Police Department. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's still a duck. It's a quota."
-Edward Daniel, attorney at law and former KPD police officer
"Cops have a[n illegal] quota system."
-Sgt. James Eagan, New York State Police (Retired), from his book, A Speeder's Guide to Avoiding Tickets
The use of courts as local revenue-producing agencies is an abuse of the judicial process. It has long been recognized as unconstitutional for a judge's income to be dependent on the outcome of cases. But a similar result often occurs when the budget of a court is set in relation to the fines the court imposes or when a county or city comes to rely on whatever surplus is produced.
–To Serve All People: A report from the Commission on the Future of the Tennessee Judicial System 1996
"I was put under pressure. It was like a race. How many more people can we get today?"
-arrested Knoxville, Tennessee, police officer describing the government's illegal quota
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….
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