2 Veteran LAPD Motor Officers awarded $2M in ticket quota suit...

[avalon42]

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[SCV-Sop]

SOURCE: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2790462.story

Seriously?

One of the more productive practices I’ve seen employed by an agency was essentially written warnings. Not a ticket, but the officer documented the date, place, time, offense, and Driver Info and turned it in like a ticket.

So it documented officer productivity without writing a citation. So a shift commander could enforce “productivity”. Now, there may be an unwritten rule, and maybe internal competition between officers to bag more tickets, but it certainly wasnt an implied policy.

Also, with such a practice in place, I would think that PD would be able to fend off a suit similar to this one.

[BanditLAPD]

One of the more productive practices I’ve seen employed by an agency was essentially written warnings. Not a ticket, but the officer documented the date, place, time, offense, and Driver Info and turned it in like a ticket.

So it documented officer productivity without writing a citation. So a shift commander could enforce “productivity”. Now, there may be an unwritten rule, and maybe internal competition between officers to bag more tickets, but it certainly wasnt an implied policy.

Also, with such a practice in place, I would think that PD would be able to fend off a suit similar to this one.

Problem with that is the CO doesn't get a kickback for written warnings. Yes that's correct each CO of every LAPD division gets a bonus each year based on the number of tickets written....

[avalon42]

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[Se7en]

Not sure what the issue was... tell the officers to pick up their activity, if they don't, transfer them.

[County222]

I thought the Three 'E's applied. Education, Enforcement and Engineering these three items are the basis for traffic control and risk mitigation.

[LA Copper]

Problem with that is the CO doesn't get a kickback for written warnings. Yes that's correct each CO of every LAPD division gets a bonus each year based on the number of tickets written....

I've been on over 20 years and have heard this a couple of times but have never seen anything that substantiates it. Do you have some type of proof? I'm very curious if this is true.

As far as written warnings go, I believe they are a waste of time. If you're gonna write something, it should be an actual ticket, otherwise, a verbal warning would suffice and move onto the next stop.

This particular captain has had many complaints and lawsuits filed against her while she was in that traffic division. This is only the first to be publicized.

[LA Copper]

Not sure what the issue was... tell the officers to pick up their activity, if they don't, transfer them.

The issue at least with LAPD motors is, they get to take them home, just like take home cars. Their primary duty is traffic enforcement / citation writing. If they don't write enough, the managment is not happy. You can guess why.

[nobodyjr]

This particular captain has had many complaints and lawsuits filed against her while she was in that traffic division. This is only the first to be publicized.

I suspected this was the case. A disaster captain can cause a department more in liability issues than a bad OIS.

[SCV-Sop]

Problem with that is the CO doesn't get a kickback for written warnings. Yes that's correct each CO of every LAPD division gets a bonus each year based on the number of tickets written....

Shhhhhhhh................. You're forgetting the self addressed stamped envelope attached with each warning ticket for an anonymous donation to the local the POA.

Literally however, it is more profitable for the city to write municipal citations (parking tickets, dogs on leashes) than it is moving violations.

[SCV-Sop]

I suspected this was the case. A disaster captain can cause a department more in liability issues than a bad OIS.

Like $2M for a Union disagreement related to ticket writting. Heck man, it's cheaper to put a bullet in the wrong person's head.

[ateamer]

Like $2M for a Union disagreement related to ticket writting. Heck man, it's cheaper to put a bullet in the wrong person's head.

I wouldn't say that it's just a union disagreement. Requiring a certain number of tickets to be written is a clear violation of 41602 VC.

On top of that, numbers of tickets written and arrestes made is not a good measure of efficiency or effectiveness. Reduction in traffic collisions is the measure to use concerning traffic, and even if collisions are up, engineering and education have to be looked at as much as enforcement. You can write tickets all day long, but if a road has a design or construction flaw that leads to crashes, writing more cites won't solve the problem.

[willowdared]

Not sure what the issue was... tell the officers to pick up their activity, if they don't, transfer them.

You may need to re-read the story. If you choose to measure activity using illegal means you are breaking the law. If you are punitive towards someone who won't break the law to pick up their activity you are breaking the law. If you retaliate against someone who reports your policies are breaking the law...you are breaking the law.

[Fuzz]

Ticket count is not a good measure of a motor/traffic officers productivity. There were times when my ticket count would fluctuate and I would write half as many as normal. That was because I was working fatals, writing grants, working a motor academy, etc. A good supervisor should know what their officers are doing and adjust performance reviews accordingly. If I have nothing going on I should be writing tickets....if I am busy doing other job related duties then I cant be out writing tickets.

[LA Copper]

Ticket count is not a good measure of a motor/traffic officers productivity. There were times when my ticket count would fluctuate and I would write half as many as normal. That was because I was working fatals, writing grants, working a motor academy, etc. A good supervisor should know what their officers are doing and adjust performance reviews accordingly. If I have nothing going on I should be writing tickets....if I am busy doing other job related duties then I cant be out writing tickets.

Unfortunately, that kind of stuff doesn't apply here. Here, pretty much the only thing motors do is write tickets and arrest deuces. They don't investigate traffic collisions, we have other officers who do that. They also don't write grants, we have admin guys doing that kind of stuff.