Remember a couple months ago when this comment was left (bottom of page)? Stoopid (a name that’s apparently indicative of his actual intelligence) said “cops don’t work on commission.”
Well, in Provo, they do work on commission. It’s not that they get extra money for each ticket they write–rather, they get to keep their jobs. Here‘s the Salt Lake Tribune story, detailing how “Police administrators are ‘strongly encouraging’ each officer to write at least three tickets a day, a showing that could help pave the way for a good performance evaluation.” But it’s not really a quota: “‘This is just a minimal performance standard our [Police] Department has set,’ Provo mayoral spokesman Michael Mower said Wednesday. ‘It’s only three tickets per 10-hour shift for each officer. So it really is pretty doable.’”
At least some Provo City councilmen have the right idea, though it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to do anything about it. Mark Hathaway says, “It seems rather unsavory if police officers have to write three tickets a day. I want them to write one every time they see someone breaking the law.” That makes perfect sense to me. And councilman Stan Lockhart is quoted, “But the last thing I want is to have a Police Department that believes its job is to generate revenue.” I’ve always thought a police department’s primary job was to generate revenue. Preventing traffic accidents is only secondary. And preventing/solving real crimes is an entirely different matter–it’s a completely different aspect of their jobs. Cops serve two purposes–to generate revenue, and to “protect and serve” when they’re not busy parked on the side of the road, passively aiming their radar guns as each passing motorist.