Ban on police ticket quotas is quashed

A bill sponsored by Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, to ban ticket quotas failed to make it out of committee on Monday morning.

HB255 would have prohibited law enforcement agencies from requiring their officers to adhere to ticket quotas.

Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, opposed the bill.

"There is no quota system," Greiner, who is also Ogden's police chief, told the Deseret Morning News. "There's this myth that policemen want to write tickets."

Greiner said the bill would hamstring police departments that might be trying to stop speeders or dangerous drivers on a particular stretch of road.

Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, who voted for the bill, said in an interview that he would try to broker a compromise to bring back HB255, which failed 2-2 along party lines in the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.