New Illinois law bans traffic ticket quotas

<span>In addition to cyber bullying and a crop of other laws, new legislation that is to take effect on Jan. 1 deals with a ban on ticket quotas at Illinois law enforcement agencies.</span>

<span>Senate Bill 3411, sponsored by State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea), was signed by Gov. Pat Quinn on June 16. It was approved by the state Senate in a 57-1 vote on April 10 and the House followed suit on May 21 with a 106-9 vote.</span>

<span>"Law enforcement officers should have discretion on when and where to issue traffic citations and not be forced to ticket motorists to satisfy a quota system," said Quinn in a June 16 news release announcing the new law. "This new law will improve safety and working conditions for police officers and prevent motorists from facing unnecessary anxiety when they encounter a police vehicle."</span>

<span>The law forbids municipal, county and state police departments from requiring officers to write a set amount of tickets in a set amount of time. Comparing the amount of citations officers write as an evaluation of their job performance is also banned under the law.</span>

<span>"We never embraced quotas to begin with," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey. "I never really valued the whole ticket quota practice.</span>

<span>"I have no problem with it being banned."</span>

<span>Coffey said his department works on contacts - situations where a citizen interacts with an officer in some way - instead of quotas.</span>

<span>"We work on contacts and as many positive contacts as possible," he said.</span>

<span>In April, Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Executive Director John H. Kennedy wrote an opposition letter to the bill, stating concerns that it infringes upon a department's ability to hold officers accountable to meet performance standards.</span>

<span>He also expressed concern that passage of SB 3411 could mean the loss of millions of dollars of federal funding for highway traffic safety.</span>

<span>An amendment was later added to the bill so that the ban "shall not affect the conditions of any federal or State grants awarded to the municipality and used to fund traffic enforcement programs." </span>

<span>"I consider us moderately active, relative to tickets, compared to the size of our agency," Coffey said. "I don't see any significant revenue (from tickets) coming back from the courthouse.</span>

<span>"Certainly nothing significant in reducing department costs."</span>

<span>Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff said he is against ticket quotas.</span>

<span>"We have a lot more pressing issues than writing tickets," he said. "I'm not saying (traffic tickets) aren't important, but there's some issues that need our attention more than ticket quotas."</span>

<span>Wolff also said the money his department gets back from traffic tickets is minimal.</span>

<span>"There is some money from traffic tickets that we get, but the citizens pay taxes for us to be out there doing our job," Wolff said. "There are times when tickets need to be written and I don't think we need to set a quota on our officers to write these tickets.</span>

<span>"I don't think it best serves the public to have ticket quotas."</span>