Is it true American Police Officer's have a quota of tickets they need to give out or else they can be fired?

Question

Is this true in anyway possible

and what happens if nobody break's the law in a certain month during the officers ship do officers throw out ticket's to anyone even slightly suspicious or questionable?

It seems pretty sick that if you don't give out a certain number of tickets it's your fault that really pressures the police to go through some bad tactics to give out a ticket when they normally shouldn't

Answer 1

Trooper 3316 is correct.  Despite what a lot of irate motorists believe, there is no quota, it is unconstitutional.  

And as for productivity being used to produce tickets, false.  Productivity is measured on a variety of things, miles driven during your work period, calls for service answered, reports written, ordinance violations investigated, tickets written, warnings written, arrests made.  You see, it is also considered unethical and illegal to rate a police officers productivity on one activity such as tickets.  

Answer 2

I dont no about other Agencys but here in Sacramento County their is no quota

Answer 3

Yes they all have quota's that must be met.Doesn't matter if no one breaks the law,the tickets still have to be written.

Answer 4

I doubt its true, its just something that people say when they are mad because they got a ticket.

Answer 5

No, there are no quotas per say, but it all depends if you are a state trooper where your main job is traffic, or a big city cop, where main job is crime and doesnt have a whole lot of time to spend on speeders except maybe on day work.

So if a state trooper works the highways all day or night long, he better be bringing in some tickets.

Answer 6

No that is not true.   Story made up by the mob against Police Officers.    Propaganda.    Just like the name Bin Laden.    People carry's with pride, the false belief that  his name lives on and will not admit to the fact that  he is dead.       Continual propaganda.  

Answer 7

Yea; Its scaled to how many donuts they get to eat with a cup of coffee added for every 5th ticket. I think you've watched to much TV

Answer 8

In 30 years as an officer and judge, I've never known of been told of a quota. Now, if your primary assignment is traffic, and you come in at the end of shift with one or two tickets, you were ratting off and not working. There's no need for a quota. How many violations can you see every day on the way to work? More than any quota could require. And you don't see half of them.

Answer 9

No, an officer cannot be fired for not handing out tickets. Some county police officers who work in a department where the Sheriff acts as the judge such as in Waldo in Florida make there towns money by giving tickets out. Setting up speed traps are not illegal and technically you can get a ticket for being over 1 mph above the posted limit if you want to be technical but you can argue factory settings of the speedometer being within the 2-4mph difference. This is why most officers only will pull you over if your 10mph over the limit or more.

We never had any quota and that is illegal anyway. They can tell you to write more tickets which in terms means being more vigilant during your shift but there are more bigger things to be concerned with other than some person who is going 39 in a 35 marked zone.

Answer 10

Quotas were ruled unconstitutional and are illegal.

The public would not tolerate them, and police unions oppose them.

It is also illegal to discipline someone for not writing enough tickets.

Answer 11

No quotas at LAPD, the troops can write as many tickets as they want.

Answer 12

No,

it's not called a "quota" anymore. It's called "productivity" now..