Do cops have a monthly quota?

Question

So it's July 31st and I saw 4 cops giving tickets today....and I drove for a total of about 20 minutes. People say it's not true, but I'm having a hard time believing it when end-of-month is always SWARMING with cops. So, is it true?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if they have an official quota, but they do need to prove that they've done something that month. They do this through paperwork. Just remember that they can either give you a ticket or a warning on paper, but they do need to prove that they're doing their jobs.

Answer 2

18 years on the force and never had a quota. Most cops judge whether or not to write a ticket is based on 1. your attitude, 2. the violation ( how fast is too fast), and 3. the area (residential).

90% of the time, I would give a verbal warning. The other 10% got tickets. One got so mad at me cause i wrote them a 65 MPH in a 25 mph ( neighborhood with kids out front playing).

So, cops are dads, moms, brothers, sisters and real people too. Give them the same break you want them to give you. Smile, and above all, tell the truth.

Answer 3

I work as a dispatch, get to tell the cops where to go. My officers have a quota of 30 stops a month, its up to them weather or not to give tickets or warning's. Most of the officers give warnings due to the rising cost of fines in my city/county. But at the same time, if your a moron you deserve a ticket, and there is the occasional officer that's just a jerk, everyone works with someone like that.

Answer 4

20 years ago, there was but not many today.

In some places like Atlanta for example there are just traffic officers, who do nothing every day but traffic

And for others in Atlanta they have an evaluation system, where every stop they do, report, arrest, ticket is worth a certain rating, so they have to do enough calls, stops, tickets and so on to keep thier evaluations hight.

Oh the old days, when I first started as an officer in the 70
s there were no miranda rights, no radar guns and I got 10 percent of every ticket that was paid by the court.

Answer 5

I'm in the group that thinks 'yes they do have a monthly quota'. I've noticed that they are more aggressive about giving tickets during the last three days of a month.

Answer 6

NO. Quotas are in essence unconstitutional. The state government can not require a minimum numbers of tickets or arrests.

However, the department's supervisors can "recommend for promotional purposes" a "good number to achieve."

See how it works now? I might know what I'm talking about, I'm a cop.

Answer 7

Some citys do , some do not . As for the state of Lousiana ..... ever cop/ sheriff is a jerk right now ..... Got a ticket for 1 mile an hour over posted speed.........

If you’re behind the wheel on a Louisiana roadway this summer, it might be a particularly good idea to watch your speedometer.

On Monday, public safety officials launched the “100 Days of Summer Heat,” a statewide crackdown on speeding involving hundreds of officers from at least 139 law enforcement agencies. The campaign continues through Sept. 12.

No one likes to get a speeding ticket. It can feel like an undue punishment for what seems, in the course of things, to be a minor infraction. But speeding can have harmful, even deadly, consequences for those who insist on hitting the accelerator too heavily.

“Almost one-third of the people killed on the highways were involved in speeding-related crashes,” said Col. Henry Whitehorn, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police. “There’s no doubt that speed is a major contributor to hundreds of deaths in Louisiana each year. Our goal in the 100 Days of Summer Heat campaign is to get drivers to slow down and save lives.”

A recently completed study by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development concluded that 79 percent of vehicles on interstate highways on which surveys were performed were exceeding speed limits.

Those results won’t surprise anyone who’s been on a Louisiana highway lately, said James E. Champagne, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

“In certain areas of this state, we don’t have interstates; we have race tracks,” he said. “We need to get people to slow down. The message we are delivering to drivers is plain and simple: ‘Don’t speed, because if you do, your chances of getting a ticket are greatly increased.’”

Champagne said his agency is using federal funds for the $650,000 anti-speeding campaign, which includes television advertising, billboards and radio public service advertisements. The enforcement initiative by the State Police and numerous local law enforcement agencies is the largest speeding crackdown ever conducted in Louisiana.

Speeding is estimated to be a factor in 31 percent of fatal crashes, meaning that an estimated 217 people were killed in speeding-related crashes in Louisiana in 2004. Nationally, an estimated 13,192 people were killed in speeding-related crashes in 2004.

We live in a society in which speed has become almost reflexive. But speed can kill, which is why we hope that local motorists “feel the heat” and heed the “100 Days of Summer Heat” campaign.

Answer 8

I never worked for both a city department and a county sheriff's office. Neither had quotas.

Answer 9

I'm pretty sure they do have a quota, not sure how long. I always thought a year, but a month probably makes more since.

Answer 10

No, Police and State Patorl officers DO NOT have quota