In 2018, the Utah Legislature passed a bill saying police agencies should not set ticket or arrest quotas for their peace officers. But even after the bill was signed into law, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross said some agencies were still enforcing quotas.
“None of us want to question when we’re pulled over. ‘Am I being pulled over because I did a serious infraction, or am I being pulled over because this officer had to have one more ticket before he ended the shift for the day?’” Weiler said during Tuesday’s House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee meeting.
“Nobody really wants that incentive for law enforcement.”
His bill, SB243, would amend current law on quotas by prohibiting the setting of quotas for a specific number of tickets issued but not prohibiting quotas based on citizen interactions.
According to Weiler, Bountiful has already implemented a citizen interactions quota. This means that warnings and other interactions can meet a peace officer’s quota rather than requiring a ticket amount.
To motivate officers during their shifts, Weiler advised implementing performance metrics so that agencies can evaluate them based on community engagement and enforcement activity.
“I like our police. I believe in them,” Weiler said. “I believe that most of them are doing the right thing for the right reasons.”
“This bill is kind of an incentive to make sure that the policy that we adopted six or seven years ago is enforced with the understanding that they can require their police to work and not just watch Netflix all day, but they can’t require them to go out and write so many tickets on each shift or each week.”
The bill passed the House committee favorably with an 8-0 vote.