# Quota Time: fact or fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 10, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638 "2000-09-10T01:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d07c76/32.png) [@flup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flup)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/1 "2000-09-10T01:01:40Z")
In the 3 years or so I have been driving, I have on several occasions heard from primarily friends who are really shitty drivers that it is unwise to speed (particularly on the freeway) towards the end of the month because this is “quota time”, during which state and local troopers (at least in NC) are far more likely to pull people over in order to meet a monthly quota. Very recently, it occurred to me all at once that this strongly resembled bullshit. Cops are required to pull over a minimum number of drivers per month? Come on. Please. Does anyone know anything about this, or should I chalk it all up to urban legend? –Flup! ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/2 "2000-09-10T01:26:03Z")
Depends on where you live, I guess. Several years ago in Houston, the police went on a “quota strike”–they simply refused to write tickets. IIRC, one of their demands was the elimination or reduction of what they considered an unfair tickets-per-month quota. I don’t remember what the end result of the strike was. -David ---
**Author:** ![henbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4af34b/32.png) [@henbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/henbin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/3 "2000-09-10T02:31:41Z")
Around here it’s in the papers a lot that meter readers are on quotas. I’m not sure if they are monthly, but it has something to do with the city budget. Some contenders want to make meters “revenue neutral”, so they only serve the original purpose of spreading around the available spaces. Under that plan, if parking wasn’t tight in an area, no stores would complain and parking infractions would get less priority. That doesn’t sound fair to the people who pay, though, so it’s always in the To The Editor page. ---
**Author:** ![Gatsby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@Gatsby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatsby)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/4 "2000-09-10T03:44:15Z")
Well, if nothing else, I can now feel completely exempt from obeying the speed limit for at least the first week of the month. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/5 "2000-09-10T14:52:20Z")
Where I live, I’d heard that quotas are illegal, as they encourage police to pull over people for BS reasons just fill fill the requisite number. So instead of quotas, they have “Suggested Performance Standards” Oh yeah, huge difference, huh? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/6 "2000-09-10T15:02:49Z")
I asked a policeman friend of mine if they had quotas for tickets…He said,“Nope, I can write as many as I want”… ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/7 "2000-09-10T15:06:39Z")
I can’t speak for state troopers, but my best friend back home is married to a county cop, so I can tell you that they don’t have quotas officially, but one of the criteria they are judged on for job performance is tickets. Basically, if they’re not writing a certain number of them a month, it implies they’re not doing their job. Having an “in” with the local police, of course, takes care of my ticket worries–not that I get pulled over all that often, but still. “Gee, you look familiar, do you know X? I thought maybe I’d seen you at a party at his house or something…yeah, I’m friends with his wife, Y. Why, thank you so much, Officer, I certainly appreciate that.” ---
**Author:** ![flup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d07c76/32.png) [@flup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flup)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/8 "2000-09-10T21:31:55Z")
OK, so quotas do actually exist. i think that’s fucking retarded, but Geobabe’s explanation makes sense. I think it’s unfair that they have to deal a certain number of penalties in a certain amount of time, though, regardless. But it’s good that it makes me think, you know? Cops get a bad rap for the most part, and I’m as guilty of it as anyone else, I guess. But It’s good to realize that cops aren’t the assholes, largely. They have to keep their jobs. I guess they’re well-intended for the most part, although a few are just pretty much licensed thugs. Oh well. Goddam bureaucracy. –Flup! ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/9 "2000-09-11T00:55:14Z")
Ask any cop about quotas and they will swear that they don’t exist. Ask any ex-cop whether they exist and you’ll get a wink and a knowing nudge. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quota-time-fact-or-fiction/32638/10 "2000-09-11T02:49:00Z")
A couple of paragraphs from a loooong article in the Washington Post, many moons ago: > [@](#): > > Ticket Writers and Quotas > > Thursday, June 4, 1998; Page A22 > > PARKING CONTROL aides are expected to write 90 tickets a day – more than 9,000 a day if everyone’s working. They are monitored closely, with slackers getting warning letters from supervisors. Their ticket books are scrutinized for time gaps, and, once a month, a supervisor pays a surprise visit. > > Aggressive ticket writing and alleged ticket-writing quotas by city aides reported in yesterday’s Post have been around for some time and don’t seem to get any better. So have the denials. “We don’t have quotas,” said then-city parking official Grady Williams in 1993. Three years later, parking ticket czar Gwen Mitchell offered a similar response. Mrs. Mitchell said her department has an understanding of how many tickets a certain route should generate over a period of time. That number is then weighed against each ticket writer’s total during a performance evaluation, she said. But whether an expectation of 90 tickets a day represents a “quota” or a “performance standard” is irrelevant. It is an established target that apparently encourages the kind of overly aggressive ticket writing that leaves little room for the exercise of good judgment. > > After hearing officials acknowledge a 90-ticket-a-day goal this week, D.C. Chief Management Officer Camille Barnett told Public Works chief Cellerino Bernardino and his parking enforcement staff to come up with a new and fairer enforcement system. But remember that years ago, when > the city was faced with parking enforcement gone overboard, the Kelly administration promised attitude-adjustment training for parking aides and ordered them to lighten up. It only made them madder. Remember this in case you ever get [screwed by parking enforcement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=37521).