OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Allegations of possible ticket quotas are being raised by some Omaha police officers after a captain sent an email to address low ticket numbers since a new electronic filing system was implemented.
The Omaha World-Herald (https://bit.ly/1II10kh ) reports a captain with the northwest precinct in the Omaha Police Department wrote an email to staff asking them to speak with officers who issued less than eight tickets in March.
The captain wanted to address disparities in the number of tickets, which include traffic tickets, misdemeanors and juvenile citations. The numbers are based on monthly reports generated by the new system that officers began using last summer.
“All Sergeants need to sit down and talk to their officers who have less than 8 tickets for this past month and find out what the issue is,” she wrote in the email obtained by the paper.
John Wells, the police union president, said most of the police complaints he’s received center on the eight tickets mentioned in the email. Officers are concerned the language in the email goes against state law that prohibits minimum numbers of traffic tickets and citations.
“It’s unfortunate that ’eight’ was put on (the email). It’s illegal to put a quota. Everyone knows that,” he said. “But until they get disciplined or get a reprimand - that’s the point where (the union) would get involved.”
Lt. Darci Tierney, a police spokeswoman, says the action requested by the captain is legal because it does not put any requirements on officers.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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