Traffic Citation Quota Ban Passes House with Narrow Margin

Jan 28, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

Bill Now Heads to Senate

(KCPW News) Debate on Capitol Hill over a proposed ban on traffic citation quotas is increasingly framed as a fight for local control. Representative Richard Greenwood says, as a 20-year veteran of the Utah Highway Patrol, he knows the issue is best resolved at the local level.

 "The point of it is, is once again, the state telling cities and counties how to run their law enforcement agencies," Greenwood says. "And I see that as a fundamental problem."

For the bill's sponsor, Representative Neil Hansen, local control starts with the individual officers. They are trusted to make life-and-death decisions about when to fire their gun, or use their Taser, Hansen says. So why not give them the power to decide when to write a ticket?

 "Why are we letting the administrations determine whether an officer should have to write a ticket or not? If we are really looking at local control, let's give the authority back to the officers to have the discretion to determine whether a ticket is written or not," Hansen says.

Hansen's bill will likely spur more debate in the Senate, where it heads next. The bill passed the full House Monday by a narrow, 8-vote margin. Read the full text of the bill, here.

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