General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDo municipalities have quotas for arrests made? If so, could this be a part of aggressive policing?
You tell me.
please no flaming
thank you
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... dependent?
Right, cause they have to think twice before the kill the brigadier generals son or slam the LT Cols daughter's head to the pavement
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)the stationhouse knows who's got the most and the least.
You don't want to stand out.
Claire Oh Nette
(2,636 posts)However, if the average cop writes four tickets a day, and you write 1, you're not effectively policing. When it's speed traps and bullshit stops for tags and the like, especially in small rural towns, it's revenue that the department needs.
All kinds of things need to be reformed, including police funding and the addition of community services.
I wonder if we'd have al these other incidents if the Chauvin murder trial weren't going os badly for the police.
sheshe2
(83,319 posts)ON GENERATING REVENUE
City officials have consistently set maximizing revenue as the priority for Fergusons law
enforcement activity. Ferguson generates a significant and increasing amount of revenue from
the enforcement of code provisions. The City has budgeted for, and achieved, significant
increases in revenue from municipal code enforcement over the last several years, and these
increases are projected to continue. Of the $11.07 million in general fund revenue the City
collected in fiscal year 2010, $1.38 million came from fines and fees collected by the court;
similarly, in fiscal year 2011, the Citys general fund revenue of $11.44 million included $1.41
million from fines and fees. In its budget for fiscal year 2012, however, the City predicted that
revenue from municipal fines and fees would increase over 30% from the previous years
amount to $1.92 million; the court exceeded that target, collecting $2.11 million. In its budget
for fiscal year 2013, the City budgeted for fines and fees to yield $2.11 million; the court
exceeded that target as well, collecting $2.46 million. For 2014, the City budgeted for themunicipal court to generate $2.63 million in revenue. The City has not yet made public the
actual revenue collected that year, although budget documents forecasted lower revenue than
snip
City, police, and court officials for years have worked in concert to maximize revenue at
every stage of the enforcement process, beginning with how fines and fine enforcement
processes are established. In a February 2011 report requested by the City Council at a Financial
Planning Session and drafted by Fergusons Finance Director with contributions from Chief
Jackson, the Finance Director reported on efforts to increase efficiencies and maximize
collection by the municipal court. The report included an extensive comparison of Fergusons
fines to those of surrounding municipalities and noted with approval that Fergusons fines are at
or near the top of the list. The chart noted, for example, that while other municipalities parking
fines generally range from $5 to $100, Fergusons is $102. The chart noted also that the charge
for Weeds/Tall Grass was as little as $5 in one city but, in Ferguson, it ranged from $77 to
$102. The report stated that the acting prosecutor had reviewed the Citys high volume
offenses and started recommending higher fines on these cases, and recommending probation
only infrequently. While the report stated that this recommendation was because of a large
volume of non-compliance, the recommendation was in fact emphasized as one of several ways
that the code enforcement system had been honed to produce more revenue.In combination with a high fine schedule, the City directs FPD to aggressively enforce
the municipal code. City and police leadership pressure officers to write citations, independent
of any public safety need, and rely on citation productivity to fund the City budget. In an email
from March 2010, the Finance Director wrote to Chief Jackson that unless ticket writing ramps
up significantly before the end of the year, it will be hard to significantly raise collections next
year. What are your thoughts? Given that we are looking at a substantial sales tax shortfall, its
not an insignificant issue. Chief Jackson responded that the City would see an increase in fines
snip
Chief Jackson stated that he was also looking at different shift schedules which will place more
officers on the street, which in turn will increase traffic enforcement per shift. Shortly
thereafter, FPD switched to the 12-hour shift schedule for its patrol officers, which FPD
continues to use. Law enforcement experience has shown that this schedule makes community
policing more difficulta concern that we have also heard directly from FPD officers.
Nonetheless, while FPD heavily considered the revenue implications of the 12-hour shift and
certain other factors such as its impact on overtime and sick time usage, we have found no
evidence that FPD considered the consequences for positive community engagement. The Citys
2014 budget itself stated that since December 2010, the percent of [FPD] resources allocated to
traffic enforcement has increased, and [a]s a result, traffic enforcement related collections
increased in the following two years. The 2015 budget added that even after those initial
increases, in fiscal year 2012-2013, FPD was once again successful in increasing their
proportion of resources dedicated to traffic enforcement and increasing collections.
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf
I had so much more info about this back when Michael Brown was murdered. I am to tired to research. Much more in the report.
Fact is most could not pay the fines and that added fines on top of fines.
Quotas and school to prison pipeline.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)sheshe2
(83,319 posts)blm
(112,919 posts)Ferguson was the worst, iirc.