The idea of a quota system in traffic policing raises questions about whether law enforcement focuses more on revenue than safety. In Canada, there’s often debate over whether ticket quotas exist and how they affect police officers’ duties.
In some Ontario cities, traffic stops are common as part of routine urban management. The role of a police officer is to maintain safety and order, which sometimes includes issuing fines for infractions. Despite public perception, many law enforcement departments, including those in Canada, assert there is no formal quota system. The idea of quotas being a “perverse incentive” surfaces since it risks prioritizing ticket numbers over genuine safety concerns.
While some individuals believe officers aim to meet a ticket quota, it’s not typically the case. Instead, police efforts often focus on areas with high complaint levels from residents.
For instance, if City Hall receives numerous complaints about traffic violations at specific intersections, the police might dedicate extra resources there.
Targeted Enforcement
Officers are often strategically placed based on community needs, which can seem like a quota in action. Public complaints can lead to specific assignments, where police visibility is increased to deter infractions.
Targeted enforcement is aimed at improving safety, not simply increasing the number of tickets.
Interaction With Supervisors
At the end of their shift, a police officer might speak with a supervisor or sergeant. Supervisors often ask how many tickets were issued during the shift. This can be misconstrued as a push for quotas. In reality, it serves as a way to ensure officers are using their time effectively.
Consider this: an officer who spends most of the day in court or handling other duties may issue fewer tickets, which may be entirely justifiable. Their primary role is maintaining law and order, which does not always lead to writing more tickets. Meanwhile, an officer managing to issue many fines may be working in a particularly busy area with numerous violations.
Misconceptions about Quotas
- The perception of quotas can arise from the natural variances in policing activities.
- Seeing one officer issue several tickets while another issues fewer, depending on their shift activities, might create a false impression of quotas.
- The public might conclude on their own that a quota exists based on the differences between officers’ results.
Video Transcription:
Do police have ticket quotas? It’s a question I actually like. I like to try to address this question for whoever takes the time to listen to me. And the answer I will give you right up front is that no, they do not have quotas. However, I find most people get, they form their own opinions on whether that’s true or not.
And I think this is why they come to that conclusion. For example, if an officer is assigned to a particular location, let’s say a four-way stop, usually what happens is they’re assigned to that location because there’ve been public complaints about the driving in that particular location. So the public, at large, will see a police vehicle there and oftentimes they’ll be leaving and ticketing people as they don’t stop for the stop sign. So it’s targeted enforcement of that. From that sort of a perspective, the public comes to the conclusion, “Well, oh, he’s just fulfilling his quota,” or “she’s just simply fulfilling a quota,” and that’s not actually true.
They’re there to enforce the regulations there because the police or the community has decided that there’s a problem there. The other way that the public, I think, comes to the conclusion that there are quotas out there is simply because when an officer is on duty, they’re usually going to be on duty for 10, sometimes 12 hours at a time.
They are given a ticket book, or they’re given instructions that in this particular area of the city or town, or wherever they may be, you’re to enforce all of the rules. They’re also managed, there are supervisors for those police officers. And the first line of supervisor would be a sergeant.
So, at the end of the day, an officer would return, and the sergeant’s going to be saying, “Well, you know, how did your day go?” And one of those conversations, or one of those questions, is going to be, “Well, how many tickets did you write?” So, at the end of the day, an officer coming back may have written no tickets or one ticket.
And that person may have spent the rest of their day in court, and it kind of makes sense to the sergeant, who’s managing all of these constables, as to what’s going on with that particular individual. Now, it could be the same question asked to another constable, and the answer may be, “Well, yeah, I was out there and I issued 25 traffic tickets.”
Well, in example one and example two, that sergeant knows they were working, and they can justify their salaries, and they know that they were doing the job for the community, a job that they were paid to do. But the third example would be a constable who’s simply out there, and at the end of the day, wasn’t in court, didn’t really go to any calls, and didn’t issue any tickets.
So, that particular officer may appear to the public, even though we know he’s not doing the job and maybe being lazy. When the public sees an officer like that not doing much, and then they see an officer who’s issuing a lot of tickets, you come to the conclusion, “Well, that’s probably a quota.” So it’s common to hear, a very common question.
But there indeed is no quota out there. And it is a question that is a legitimate question. And I enjoy answering that for you.
