Cops Fight Back Against Traffic Ticket Quotas

Devonshire Station Fights Back

30 LA Police Department Officers from the Devonshire Station filed an official grievance with their union over traffic ticket quotas. The department had issued 502,499 traffic tickets the previous year, but the current year's numbers had been coming up about 20,000 tickets short and officials have been increasing pressure to boost numbers.

Police Protective League lawyer Hank Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times that the officers were told during roll call that, "Ticket a day keeps the sergeant away."  30 officers were also notified in writing that they were not issuing a sufficient number of citations, which could affect their pay and promotion opportunities.

"It's an attempt to coerce and threaten officers to get them to write more tickets," Hernandez explained.

Police officials denied the existence of a ticket quota.

And, in another case in New Jersey this was reported in Dec 2008:
A former police officer has filed a lawsuit against the city of Hubbard claiming the police chief forced him to violate state law by working under a quota of issuing at least 100 tickets per month.  Former police officer Jason Doss said regardless of how much over the speed limit a resident of Hubbard was driving, Chief Tomas Echartea told him to “shake their hand and tell them to have a nice day.”

In response to the allegations, Echartea said “that’s not something we do,” but directed all requests for comment to the city’s attorney in the matter, Waco-based Roy L. Barrett. Barrett filed a general denial of the allegations with the county.

 “The city of Hubbard denies the allegations of wrongdoing made by Mr. Doss and plans to vigorously defend this lawsuit,” Barrett said. He declined further comment.

According to a petition filed at the Hill County courthouse by Doss’ Boerne-based attorney, Doss was “disciplined and forced to resign after reporting to the proper authorities that he was instructed to comply with a ticket quota.”

Doss, 27, said he was told of the quota on his first day by Echartea and police Sgt. John Bailes. Doss said he had been hired as a probationary employee so, even though he knew it was illegal, he followed orders. At the time, he was the department’s only officer, other than Echartea, Bailes and City Manager Alfredo Saldana, who is a reserve officer.

The lawsuit alleges that during the time he was ignoring all other city patrolling and concentrating solely on meeting the traffic ticket quota, Doss was “praised for his efforts and given a pay raise.” When Doss’ probation expired, and he concentrated on city policing rather than meeting the quota, the lawsuit alleges he was harassed and discriminated against by Echartea and Saldana.

The lawsuit alleges Doss was yelled at, threatened and that his family was denied police protection “during a potentially dangerous encounter.”  He also was made to work “unreasonable hours,” work while he was sick and allowed only one uniform shirt, even though he worked nightly. His portable radio and Taser were also taken away from him, the lawsuit alleges.

“They just started aggressively trying to get rid of me,” Doss said. “The discrimination was terrible. They didn’t want to fire me because they knew what I was saying was true.”
Doss said Echartea focused the department’s efforts on writing traffic citations to out-of-towners so that he didn’t have to worry about his reputation in the community.
“He lets the city get away with murder on traffic,” Doss said.

Doss reported the information of the traffic ticket quota to Saldana, who “sided” with Echartea, the lawsuit states.

“It became clear that, not only was Mr. Doss’ current employment in question, but that the officials of the city were putting his life and his future in jeopardy,” the lawsuit states.
He resigned and has since received a job with a different police department, but declined to say where.

When contacted at his Waco office, Barrett said, “It might be interesting to inquire whether Mr. Doss has a history of litigation against a prior employer.”

When asked to comment further, Barrett declined.

Doss said he no longer has faith in what he calls “the system.” “I’ve lost all hope,” he said. “There’s no hope for any of this. It’s a disaster. There’s no one watching the store, no checks and balances, no accountability.”

For more information on traffic ticket quotas, please contact us, we are here to help. Of course, always remember, for answers to these and many more concerns, please feel free to contact us at http://www.Tofixyourtrafficticket.com, a service provided by TicketBust.com or at 800-850-8038.


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