The following article was published in the August 2019 Utah Justice Coalition monthly newsletter.
In the 2018 Utah legislative session, Senator Howard Stephenson and Representative Kim Coleman sponsored Utah Senate Bill 154 and the bill was signed into law by Governor Herbert on March 19, 2018, and is now a part of Utah code as section 77-7-27.
Utah Code Annotated 77-7-27(2). A political subdivision or law enforcement agency employing a peace officer may not require or direct that a peace officer meet a law enforcement quota.
(3) Subsection (2) does not prohibit a political subdivision or law enforcement agency from including a peace officer’s engagement with the community or enforcement activity as part of an overall determination of the peace officer’s performance.
Bill sponsor Howard Stephenson felt passionate about sponsoring the bill “There are agencies policing for profits in an attempt to raise revenue,” Stephenson said. “It’s not an appropriate use of policing power.”
Implementing a law prohibiting police quotas is a good idea and does help move the law in the right direction. If you dig deeper into this issue police departments absolutely implement quotas, even though they have been banned. I believe that if you want to stop the currently abusive levels of citations and arrests by police officers you will need to implement laws that require them to do other things with their time and remove the incentives to implementing quotas.
Prohibiting police quotas may help to slow down police inflicted abuse by citations and arrests, however, it has been proven in many states that police precincts will find a way around laws banning quotas and continue with the abuse. Approximately twenty states have banned the use of police quotas including New York, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wyoming, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Utah. Even with state laws in place that prohibit police quotas for citations and arrests many of these states still have issues with police departments trying to work around the laws.
Several states have had lawsuits against police departments for implementing a quota system when state law banned them. New York state has had several accusations and lawsuits against police departments for implementing quotas. In 2016 officers in Arlington Texas were part of a lawsuit against the city police department for attempting to get around the state laws against quotas. In May of 2019, an internal memo written by a supervisor with the Santee South Carolina police department revealed that they were using quotas despite a state law prohibiting quotas.
Performance reviews will continue to take place, officer supervisors will review the number of tickets and arrests an officer has made. The law in Utah banning police quotas does not stop police departments from collecting crime statistics data and does not stop police departments from using that data in reviews of an officer’s performance.
Outlawing quotas does not stop the reasons why police departments implement them. Police department’s primary reason for implementing quotas is to generate revenue for the department and the city, many people will deny the statement claiming police quotas are in place to review officer performance. I have to ask, why not implement quotas that incentivize officers being involved in the community such as making home visits or helping people who are on the side of the road in need of car repairs. If police departments are not allowed to implement quotas they can still have officers write tickets and arrest people in large numbers. There are plenty of laws that people do not follow every day.
Quotas are how police departments attempt to increase revenue and act like they are doing something positive for the community if traffic citations and arrests had minimal to no harm people would be less concerned with the issue. It is the disproportionate punishment for the crime committed that is the real problem.
Critics of laws prohibiting police quotas say it inhibits their ability to target specific areas and set performance standards for officers. How does not having a quota prohibit police officers from choosing to ticket or arrest people for a specific thing? If police officers know of problem areas or that there is going to be an event that will likely increase a particular activity they deem unsafe they can still discuss areas of concern in their meetings and focus on those areas without setting quotas.
Critics also say we have no business telling police departments how to run their police department. These critics make this claim based on specialized knowledge, they believe that a certain group has specialized knowledge of an area and that they should let them decide how to operate. This would be a great motto for lawmakers to adopt. In almost all cases there are groups who have a much better knowledge of an area than lawmakers and yet they persist in making laws anyway. If left unchecked police agencies only will grow their scope and reach.
An alternative that Utahns have to lessen the burden of paying fines is performing community service. A change to Utah code 76-3-301.7 in 2018 allows Utahns to perform community service with any nonprofit organization at a rate of $10.00 per hour. Most traffic citations are for $120.00 thus requiring twelve hours of community service as payment. This option is very beneficial for those who are not in a position to pay the required funds for a fine. Those who also prefer not to have their hard-earned money go to a government agency will likely prefer this option.
Crime statistics show that people living in indigent circumstances, as well as ethnic minorities, are more likely to be cited or arrested. People in poor financial situations are also more likely to be in a position where they are breaking a law. Police quotas give an incentive to officers to go after the easiest to target options first. This creates a perverse incentive that causes officers to be more likely to fine, arrest or assault those who are indigent as well as those who are minorities. To best avoid this situation it would be better if police agencies had quotas that required them to perform acts of service in the community they work within. This would help build a relationship of trust between police officers and the community at large.