Posted on 07/07/2006 12:21:50 PM PDT by george76
St. Paul's chief says the directive is to provide a standard to measure performance — not fill city coffers.
But the union and drivers aren't happy.
Let the meter expire, even for a minute or two, and there's a parking officer issuing a ticket.
Park too close to a driveway or ignore a permit-only sign and again it's ticket time.
If it seems like St. Paul aggressively enforces parking meters and rules, this might help explain why: To make sure the city's enforcement officers are working hard, police want each agent to write tickets for 55 violations a day.
Parking officers could face discipline if they don't meet the goal...
The 55-ticket goal, which was set in a December directive, has proved tough to meet...
It is against Minnesota law for agencies to set quotas for peace officers issuing traffic citations, but because St. Paul parking officers are civilians, the department's policy is lawful...
Commuters, residents and shoppers are feeling the pain. Laura Collins, assistant director of New Horizon Academy in downtown St. Paul, said she has noticed a surge in parking tickets issued in recent months to parents who drop off their children in the morning.
The St. Paul Police Federation, which represents sworn officers, contended the city ran afoul of the law that prohibits departments from setting quotas for peace officers and filed suit against the city in 2000.
The suit alleged the department "maintained at least a de facto quota for the issuance of traffic citations" since at least 1997.
"… Officers who were perceived to have issued an insufficient number of citations were considered, as part of the evaluation process, to need improvement or be unsatisfactory."
The city denied the existence of such quotas.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
The St. Paul's police homicide divison have been told they must make 3 murder arrests per day.
"The St. Paul's police homicide divison have been told they must make 3 murder arrests per day.
"
It's not Saint Paul that's having all the murders. That's Minneapolis. Huge difference!
Hmmmm. Well, theoretically, issuing tickets should motivate the population to avoid the actions they were ticketed for, sooooo, eventually officers who labor under quotas will need to 'create' offenses if they want to stay employed...
"Let the meter expire, even for a minute or two, and there's a parking officer issuing a ticket.
Park too close to a driveway or ignore a permit-only sign and again it's ticket time."
In the 80s a Houston city councilman had two questions about parking enforcement, over a few years how, what had been four white women, been replaced by 17 black women, and how, as a result of that, had revenue gone from something like $175,00.00 (per some period) to about $60,000.00.
Was the Councilman given an answer and was he reelected?
The unions would fight that. When you arrest a murderer, you are dealing with a violent offender who COULD kill you.
When you ticket a citizen for city coffers, they will do everything they can to remain upstanding and good and just get it over with.
Slave drivers!
Just under 7 tickets an hour, and when you take time off for lunch (say 2 hours down at Jims) and the afternoon break and all, well - I can see why it is so hard to make the 55/day standard.
Oh, sorry, /s
If you think you can avoid being ticketed for everything.
Those advertising shells the dealer puts around your plate are illegal here. The driver will be cited, not the dealership.
It cannot be the sole reason for a traffic stop, but it can be ticketed (for $125) if a driver is pulled over for not wearing a seat belt.
Yellow lights can be shaved to be shorter than expected.
Right on red can be restricted.
Speed limits can be legislated to float 20 miles slower if an officer has a car already pulled over.
Same thing down here in Rochester. The city just hired 2 non - sworn people to write tickets all day.
So if they are short on the quota, do they go out and whack someone, and use a throwdown gun?
What do they call these "civilians..."
Revenue Agents ?
Follow the money...
I thought the total parking available on the street in downtown SP was a 110 spaces...there's gonna be an aweful lot of officers getting written up ;-)
"I thought the total parking available on the street in downtown SP was a 110 spaces.."
...let us not forget their other fine law...the one which allows a pedestrian to jump out into traffic whenever they want,as long as the crosswalk is marked.
"We want people to have lots of places to park, which means you have to kick the illegal ones out," said City Council Member Dave Thune"..."They don't write tags if they don't deserve to be written. If someone's parked illegally, they're parked illegally, period."
Interesting how the same people can't seem to think this directly about the illegal alien problem. But challenge one cent of city revenue and they suddenly turn all righteous!
I wonder if these civilian revenue agents get a percentage of the revenue if they exceed the 55 ticket per day minimum ?
.../s
yah,there is a few...you can find one between 2-4am...Unless the block you need has people running time shares on them.
"What do they call these "civilians...""
I don't know what they call them but they have shiny new right hand drive Jeeps for them to drive around in.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.