TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A top official with the Florida Highway Patrol has told troopers they aren't writing enough speeding tickets.
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The Tampa Bay Times reports Maj. Mark Welch of Troop H in Tallahassee told troopers under his command via email that "the patrol wants to see two citations each hour" adding that it's not a quota. He said it's "what we are asking you to do to support this important initiative."
Under the SOAR -- Statewide Overtime Action Response -- initiative, troopers can make extra money by working the road.
Welch noted the 5 percent pay raise the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott recently gave troopers, noting that it "has also increased your overtime rate."
State figures show troopers wrote 934,965 citations in 2014 compared to 749,241 last year.
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has issued this letter in response to the ticket story from the Associated Press:
maybelying on August 10th, 2017 at 23:41 UTC »
Doesn't a quota system undermine the objectivity or neutrality of a law enforcement giving testimony? Their statements are given higher weight than the defense because they are supposed to be impartial.
At least, that's the way it was explained to me with regards to Canadian law. I would expect it to be similar for the US.
FattyCorpuscle on August 10th, 2017 at 23:06 UTC »
Well, according to the cop that sat at the end of my block the last weekend of every month giving out "rolling stop" tickets, there are no such thing as quotas.
noncongruent on August 10th, 2017 at 22:54 UTC »
What we need is an "Everybody drive slow and break no laws" month, let's see what that does to revenues and the prosecution industry.