Do you have a quota?

[Heyshiloh]

From my professor (the sheriff in my area), I was told that there was no such thing as quotas, at least not in his jurisdiction. He said maybe in other places, he'll believe that, but again, not here. I've been poking around lately and I've been seeing a couple of stories about this topic. Most of them follow the line of there's not a mandatory quota per-sayy, as in you'd get fired, but that higher ups "under the table" require officers to do more stops necessary. This could be pulling people over for being "sketchy" or even for no reason at all, then finding a reason later for the stop, which I do understand is totally illegal, even if it is done. Does this kind of stuff happen to you/ does it happen frequently across the United States?

 

[GemmaRowlands]

I know that the police officers who work in my area have to stop and search a certain number of people on a weekly basis. It is to try and keep the streets safe, however a lot of the time it can result in people feeling as though they are being targeted by the police when this is simply not the case in the slightest. So quotas can sometimes mean that more work is done, however it can also be misunderstood from people who not know that it is in place.

 

[Trickster]

Same as Gemma, they're required to do an x amount of searches on a weekly basis. Cops aren't that bad as everyone thinks. A bunch of my friends are like "they are always stopping me", which is not truth. And if it is, it's because you drive there 10x a day, so the odds are larger!

But if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't mind a quick, 2-minute stop just to show your license and registration.

 

[KrustyKrabella]

I know in NYC they definitely have quotas as to the number of people on the streets they stop and search, because it was all over the news not too long ago. So yes, quotas definitely happen. I can believe that small jurisdictions don't have them though.

 

[Katzuhiki]

I've also been interested in this. Are there daily quotas set for police officers? Some seem very desperate to give tickets to innocent civilians.

 

[btatro]

I feel like people like to throw out this 'excuse' all the time, in order to explain why they were pulled over/given a citation vs a warning/ etc. I would be interesting to hear an answer from someone who has a definite answer. When it comes down to it, quota or not, they still have to have a legitimate reason for issuing a citation, or it would never hold up in court.

 

[js85]

I also hear this as an excuse frequently and it gets kind of old that people can't take personal responsibility for things. I wouldn't mind if there was a quota, maybe a loose on, because it'll show that they're paying attention and focused on enforcing the law.

 

[bala]

by quota you mean according to the caste right.? I am asking this because the quota system is prevalent even now.its like Backward,Most Backward,Scheduled Tribe and many others in here.Of which Scheduled tribe gets all the preferences and we who fall under General are forced to go through the tougher way.

 

[DancingLady]

I know they do things like stake out certain parts of the road where people often speed to write a lot of tickets when they need money.

 

[milyjohnson]

They have quotas here in New Jersey too. I remember reading that they had to fill quotas in order to keep their jobs. Anyone who couldn't fill their quota would have been suspended. I don't know if that is still an option though. People do tend to use that as an excuse to justify why the police pull them over.