Bill Prohibiting Traffic Enforcement Quotas Moves to the House

Jan 23, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) A bill prohibiting traffic citation quotas is making its way through the House, but the state's law enforcement agencies still maintain quotas are a myth. Representative Neil Hansen is trying to pass the bill for the second time, after it stalled in the Senate last year. And the bill likely faces another rocky road. The first obstacle: Convincing lawmakers that there is even a problem.

Lincoln Schurtz, a legislative analyst for Utah's League of Cities and Towns says lawmakers need to get to the root of the problem. He says they need to talk directly to law enforcement officers and their supervisors to determine whether anything like a quota system is in use in Utah. And, he says, they also need to address concerns that the bill would prohibit agencies from using traffic citation statistics in officers' performance reviews, and whether it would restrict officers from patrolling specific traffic zones.

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