Despite Laws And Lawsuits, Quota-Based Policing Lingers

[PoliticAverse]

In New York City, police rarely talk on the record at all, especially about a touchy subject like quotas. But Officer Adhyl Polanco is an exception.

"The culture is, you're not working unless you are writing summonses or arresting people," says Polanco.

One of the dirty secrets in law enforcement that no one likes to talk about is quotas. Police departments routinely deny requiring officers to deliver a set number of tickets or arrests. But critics say that kind of numbers-based policing is real, and corrodes the community's relationship with the police.

Polanco joined the force in 2005, and pretty quickly, he says, it became clear that his supervisors only cared about two things: tickets and arrests.

Read the rest (+audio version): http://www.npr.org/2015/04/04/395061810/despite-laws-and-lawsuits-quota-based-policing-lingers

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Years ago when quotas were a big deal in New Jersey...

they were officially abolished everywhere. Problem was that with the 600 or so police departments in the state, too many of them were the major provider of income for their little towns and they had to keep the ticket writing up somehow.

So, everyone down at the HQ knew who wrote the least and the most tickets-- you didn't want to be either of those guys.