Officers Fault Police-Ticket Quotas
Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:00 CST
By Ty McMahan, The Daily Oklahoman
Jan. 11--Two veteran Oklahoma City police officers alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday they have been forced to operate under an illegal quota system.
Officers are required to write 20 traffic tickets each month if not operating with a radar, and 25 tickets if they have radar, according to the lawsuit.
"If you're in a situation where you haven't met your quota you're going to be subjected to discipline," said Mike Gassaway, the plaintiffs' attorney. "It creates a predatory system."
Capt. Jeffrey Becker released a statement about the lawsuit.
"Oklahoma City Police use an activity tracking system to monitor employee performance in over 20 different law enforcement duties," the statement said. "Police officers are expected to enforce traffic laws, but there is no quota on traffic citations or any other category monitored by our tracking system."
The plaintiffs, Jim Duncan and Floyd Sonny Bradford, have been with the Oklahoma City Police Department for more than 20 years, Gassaway said.
"If you buck the system, you become the target of the system," Gassaway said. "These guys have had the courage to stand up and say subjecting citizens to a quota system is wrong."
According to the lawsuit, filed in Oklahoma County, the quota system "has caused each plaintiff to be perceived as a slacker, incompetent and lazy, yet to the general public it makes officers appear to be predators on the citizenry, giving out tickets for ludicrous violations in order to get money from the citizens using the city streets."
Gassaway said his clients want a judicial declaration that quotas are inappropriate.
"They're just trying to benefit everyone involved," Gassaway said. "It's not about money. It's about doing right."
Becker said he could not comment further because of the pending litigation.
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Source: The Daily Oklahoman
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