Posted on 07/20/2003 11:48:35 AM PDT by SC Swamp Fox
Lawsuit claims troopers have ticket quotas
Ex-Trooper of the Year alleges that opposition to quotas forced him out of S.C. Highway Patrol
The S.C. Highway Patrol operated a quota system that rewarded troopers who met ticket-writing goals and punished those who did not, a two-time Trooper of the Year contends in a federal lawsuit.
"Troopers who wrote greater numbers of tickets were rewarded with promotions and other benefits," says the lawsuit, filed Friday for former Trooper Edward McAbee, 38.
"Troopers who were perceived to write an insufficient number of tickets were treated with indifference, disdain or outright contempt," the lawsuit says.
McAbee, now an officer with the Clemson University Police Department, said his opposition to the "ticket quota system" led to his being forced out of the Highway Patrol.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit were Highway Patrol officers, the Department of Public Safety, and the department's director, Boykin Rose. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Columbia.
"We haven't seen the lawsuit yet, and if we had, we wouldn't comment," said Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden.
The suit, if it comes to trial, could offer a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the inner workings of the Highway Patrol. Officers don't normally make public their concerns over patrol policies.
Gaulden said the 855-trooper Highway Patrol, which wrote 517,579 tickets in 2002, has no quota system.
Gaulden said data on how much money those tickets generated wasn't readily available. However, local governments -- not the Highway Patrol -- receive most money generated from tickets, Gaulden said.
Dennis Bolt, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit for McAbee, said quotas are unfair to the driving public.
"What happens if the shift is almost over, and the trooper needs to write a few more tickets? What happens to his good faith and objectivity when he's under that kind of pressure?" Bolt asked.
The suit says troopers were expected to issue a certain minimum number of tickets, but the suit didn't specify what that minimum was.
In neighboring North Carolina, state law prohibits the N.C. Highway Patrol from having ticket quotas.
"We don't want our officers to be writing tickets they wouldn't normally write," said N.C. Highway Patrol spokesman 1st Sgt. Everett Clendenin.
However, Clendenin said N.C. troopers who failed to write tickets over a period of time would open up their job performance to question.
South Carolina has no law prohibiting a ticket quota, Gaulden said.
'CATCH UP AND MEET HIS QUOTA'
According to his lawsuit, McAbee began working for the Highway Patrol in 1990 and was named Trooper of the Year in two counties.
During 12 years on the patrol, he developed "reservations about the ticket quota system," according to his suit. During the Labor Day weekend in 2001, those reservations "crystallized."
That weekend, McAbee spent his shift investigating a hit-and-run in Pickens County, preventing him "from attending to routine traffic patrol," the suit says.
At the end of his shift, a superior berated him and told him he must write 18 tickets "on the next day in order to catch up and meet his quota," the suit says.
Later in 2001, McAbee ran for president of the S.C. Troopers Association, campaigning in part on a platform that said he was "personally and morally opposed to the ticket quota system. ... This became a point of controversy and an issue in the campaign," the suit says.
The S.C. Troopers Association has more than 1,000 members and affiliates, including troopers, retired troopers and spouses.
McAbee won the Troopers Association presidency and repeated his objections to the quota system.
In March 2002, McAbee was fired from the patrol on an allegation that turned out to baseless, the suit says.
McAbee protested his discharge and won his patrol job back through a grievance process, the suit says. But, in August 2002, he resigned from the patrol because superiors gave him substandard equipment "which endangered his physical safety" and made his existence "miserable," the suit says.
Ralph Mobley, a former colonel with the Highway Patrol who is now a captain with the Richland County Sheriff's Department, said he had considered McAbee an excellent trooper.
"He's an honest, forthright person with deep religious beliefs," Mobley said, declining to comment on the allegations in the suit.
FAILURE TO TICKET LEADS TO 'LAWLESSNESS'
Tom Crosby, spokesman for AAA Carolinas, said quotas "for the sake of quotas are bad.
"But if you are saying, 'Stop people when you see them breaking the law,' that is good."
It's important for troopers in South Carolina -- which suffers from a shortage of troopers and a high rate of traffic fatalities -- to be visible in writing tickets, Crosby said. "A lack of strict enforcement leads to a sense of traffic lawlessness."
But, in his letter of resignation last year to the Highway Patrol, McAbee said the quota policy takes time away from patrolling.
"Troopers do not have time to look for serious violations that can truly save lives," he wrote.
No trial date has been set for McAbee's suit, which seeks $1 million in damages for allegedly violating his freedom of speech.
Most of these quota policies are unofficial. That is what makes them so nefarious and so hard to fight. Those who play get promoted, favored, and you realize what you have to do to earn brownie points.
It's people's lives here though. You can get nailed on just about anything minor and up go your insurance rates, you are paying off the ticket, and 99 times out of 100 a police officer wouldn't have cited you for that infraction.
People aren't willing to pay for the police funding though. Like in education, we have instituted a lottery. The police need money, so you play this reverse lottery. If you are going 62 in a 55 zone, your odds are 1,000,000 to one of getting ticketed, but somebody does, there goes $140, and more. The insurance companies actually bribe the cops to write tickets. With a ticket they can charge you more. They actually buy radar and laser guns, and it's a good deal for them. If a laser gun costs them $5,000, but 20 of their customers get nailed with it, it pays for itself very quickly.
"Troopers who were perceived to write an insufficient number of tickets were treated with indifference, disdain or outright contempt," the lawsuit says.
That's because law enforcement's A-1 priority is money. That's why they treat you like crap and show up 3 hours later if you call them because your car got broken into. If you told them that kids were drinking and smoking pot at a house party next door, they'd be beating on the door of that place before you hung up the phone. Why? Because underage drinking tickets are an easy $400 a pop and impossible to beat in court.
At the end of his shift, a superior berated him and told him he must write 18 tickets "on the next day in order to catch up and meet his quota," the suit says.
No, where is it?
Beware on I-20, Kershaw County. US-301, Coward, SC.
Revenue Enhancement Zones.
The S.C. Troopers Association has more than 1,000 members and affiliates, including troopers, retired troopers and spouses.
McAbee won the Troopers Association presidency and repeated his objections to the quota system.
It seems the Troopers don't like it either.
At some point, a cop will have to leave the last four doughnuts, get off his butt, and get back out on the road to work. I can easily see a lazy union cop trying to get his job back by trying to make ticket quotas sound bad.
If you can do anything to limit the recklessness on Dallas area roads, I'm for you. It seems that black or dark blue pick up trucks driven by young men are the MOST reckless. If a cop tickets 2 to 5 of these a day, the area death toll would drop. What's wrong with that, especially, if the local jurisdictions also get revenue?
"But if you are saying, 'Stop people when you see them breaking the law,' that is good."
It's important for troopers....to be visible in writing tickets
"A lack of strict enforcement leads to a sense of traffic lawlessness."
From these comments I would say that AAA is opposed to a strict quota system but want strict enforcement.
He didn't fail to meet any measure,
he resigned from the patrol because superiors gave him substandard equipment "which endangered his physical safety" and made his existence "miserable," the suit says.
Ralph Mobley, a former colonel with the Highway Patrol who is now a captain with the Richland County Sheriff's Department, said he had considered McAbee an excellent trooper.
"He's an honest, forthright person with deep religious beliefs," Mobley said, declining to comment on the allegations in the suit.
If he can document his performance on the job, which from this article it appears he can, and documented the "substandard equipment" he has real good case.
I wouldn't disagree with the police if they were ultra strict, but randomness sucks.
I do not want to be ticketed because an officer had a domestic disturbance call earlier that took up a good chunk of time, and he needs to find a whole bunch of minor infractions quickly to make his quota for the day.
It's pathetic how we fund law enforcement here. I suggest that tickets go into a sales tax/property tax rebate program. You as a good driver, want everybody else zapped because it means money back for you. Direct funding of the police comes from the general fund, not from ticket revenue.
In effect, the people who pay tickets, are still paying for the police, but the direct causality reduces some of the ethical problems.
Another option would be a new branch of traffic enforcement, that only writes tickets, and only pays for itself.
If the cost to operate the vehicle, and pay the ticketers salary comes to $50 an hour, $50 from each hour worth of ticket writing pays for that person and their expenses. The rest gets rebated to the tax payers. It actually makes more sense. A regular police officer can turn you over, but only for reckless driving. They are not allowed to pull you over for going 61 on a 55 zone in no traffic on a straight stretch of highway. If you are ducking, weaving, driving dangerously, they pull you over. Otherwise, they patrol the neighborhoods to keep them safe.
Agreed. They are too busy in their "Revenue Enhancement" trap to worry about reckless drivers.
Any of you that travel down I-95 through here on your way to Florida know exactly what I am talking about.
By the way, the SCHP always set their traps in the same couple of places, they have their favorite spots. Us locals know where they are and drive accordingly as we approach them. The drunk leaving Bubba's Roadside Tavern knows where they are too.
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