DPS and ticket quotas

[Commander]

Troopers function differently than PD or SO officers. They don't answer "calls" per se as a PD Officer does. Those calls usually result in some type report being filed or other action taken. These reports and other actions give some indication of the officers work performance. As Troopers patrol the highways and handle accidents (sorry, "crash" is the new term), an indication of his work performance is "contacts", these can be a motorist assist, a warning, a ticket, an arrest, etc. If a trooper spends a 8 hour shift and has no contacts or 1 or 2 contacts, is he performing his duties in satisfactory manner? What was he doing for 8 hours? Was he working or was he goofing off somewhere? Are the citizens gettting the service they expect from that trooper? Its not a "quota" race, but an effort to ensure that a trooper is satisfactorily meeting the work standards expected by his superiors as well as the public. There has to be some measure made to determine work performance. What else is there to measure?

[Chris]

troopers out of the hurst office had stop quotas of 10. i don't know if they still do or not though. i talked to a trooper out of victoria and he said the troops that are lazy have to have the stop quotas because his office didn't do that.

my last agency wanted 15 stops per 10 hour shift. only problem is i investigated hit and runs, worked all accidents, etc, and it's pretty hard to get 15 when you've got all the other stuff going on. if i was just out hammering traffic, i could get 15 stops before breakfast. in DFW, writing tickets is like shooting fish in a bucket. a friend of mine who works in traffic in bryan said their motor jocks were writing 1000 tickets per year. i was writing 300 tickets a month, and that doesn't include warnings. i guess it has a lot to do with the area though.

i'd go out on the big road and make 6-7 stops an hour. it took me 3 minutes per stop. i was up in the panhandle and the only other cars i saw on the roads were troopers, so i imagine just 5 stops per day is a real chore up there. one trooper i knew was fired for writing fake tickets. just jot down some bogus info, turn it in to your supervisor, then throw the others in the trash. then the supervisor sees the activity, but nothing appears in the court records.

people whine about quotas all the time. funny thing is no one whines more than i. i saw a sgt tell an officer that he needed to write more tickets. i complained on him for establishing a quota. they try to get me to write a ticket, i spend the next two weeks writing nothing but warnings. they can't tell me to write a single ticket, but they can tell me to stop a certain number of cars.

[txinvestigator]

Chris

Troopers also get credit for accidents and other contacts.

Everyone,

They also do not report to work in mass like a police department and report on duty together. A Trooper goes to work from his home. He goes in-service with the dispatcher and runs whatever route he wants. The contact system is the only real way to measure performance. Without it, a person could go 10-41 (in service) and stay home and watch the big game on TV or whatever.

[DaveT]

Been following this thread with interest since my son is planning on a DPS career after he graduates from college. He is in his senior year.

From my background in law enforcement, I would offer an opinon that a big issue here is the credibility and integrity of the DPS Troopers, rather than a fuss over 'quotas'. Going back and changing the dates on warning tickets to make things look different than they really are is not being honest....... and I imagine DPS expects honesty and integrity from their Troopers.

It might be like taking a polygraph for a job interview for the government or military: if they ask if you smoked a joint when you were a teenager, they are more interested to see if you will be honest about it rather than caring much about smoking a joint as a kid.

When I was a motor officer back in the mid to late 70's, I would get asked by irate drivers I had pulled over if I was just trying to make quota ?? My answer was always the same..... "We don't have a quota, they let us write as many tickets as we want !"

[JohnKSa]

Did a one year study a few years ago on a stretch of highway that I was driving daily.

I was covering the same stretch at roughly the same times in two directions each day.

I plotted sightings of DPS officers, Sheriff/Deputies, and Local LE cars on this stretch of road.

Sheriff and Local sightings showed no change in the data. It was uniform.

DPS sightings peaked near the middle and the end of the month, and you didn't need to have any imagination to see the peaks. The biggest peak was near the end of the month.

Someone with a video camera, a location that could see this particular stretch of interstate highway and some time on his hands could really raise some unpleasant questions for DPS.

[txinvestigator]

I don't think DPS uses a calendar month. Besides, they are not evaluated on a monthly basis, but overall daily perfirmance.

[Chris]

I don't think DPS uses a calendar month. Besides, they are not evaluated on a monthly basis, but overall daily perfirmance.

that, and some of them may cover a couple of counties. i know some who will work an area for a week or so, then move to another area, and so on. you can skew it however you want, but i don't know of any agency that has ever established any type of quota for any officer. i know some officers who write tons of tickets, and others who write one a month.

[Commander]

DPS Commissioned personnel work a 28 day calendar. They are evaluated annually. However, each Sgt must perform over 100 hours of "Checkrides" that must include each trooper in his area each 6 months. After the Checkride is over, the Sgt discusses his observations with the Trooper and makes any recommendations on job performance needed.

Trooper turn in "Weekly Reports" that show their duty hours, areas they patroled, actions taken, etc.

Most Troopers usually work within their designated Sergeant area. Some Sergeant areas cover more than one County, such as Fannin and Lamar Counties. Other counties have multiple Sergeant areas, such as Kaufman County with 2 all the way up to Harris county with 8. Occasionally they will go to another area to work enhanced enforcement.

[KBCraig]

As Troopers patrol the highways and handle accidents (sorry, "crash" is the new term), an indication of his work performance is "contacts", these can be a motorist assist, a warning, a ticket, an arrest, etc. If a trooper spends a 8 hour shift and has no contacts or 1 or 2 contacts, is he performing his duties in satisfactory manner? What was he doing for 8 hours? Was he working or was he goofing off somewhere? Are the citizens gettting the service they expect from that trooper? Its not a "quota" race, but an effort to ensure that a trooper is satisfactorily meeting the work standards expected by his superiors as well as the public. There has to be some measure made to determine work performance. What else is there to measure?

I'd say if a trooper patrols his assignment and encounters no violators or accidents, he's had a fully successful shift!

Look at saturation coverage: troopers every mile or two for the full length of a major highway traversing a district. The objective is deterrence through high visibility. (Or, at least that should be the objective.)

There will be some drivers who spot the first trooper, pass him safely, then floor it. Most will be more cautious, edging up a little after the first trooper, holding steady after the second, then catch on after the third. Many drivers pay attention to the truckers: if they're not speeding, you better not dare do so, either!

In such scenarios, it's likely that you'd see reduced contacts for most of the troopers for that day. Drivers slow down due to the troopers' high visibility; hence, fewer reasons to stop drivers.

(Well, maybe not. I personally believe that the traffic bunching that results from high-viz operations creates unsafe conditions, increasing the likelihood of accidents.)

The "minimum required contacts" rule may have been necessary at one time to check up on trooper performance. But these days, GPS trackers and cheap and easy. Not to mention it's fairly easy to check records of a trooper's radio and/or MDT activity.

Here's what it boils down to with my dislike of contact quotas: if troopers are stopping people and wind up issuing warnings, they're essentially admitting that there was no unsafe act being committed. I don't know of any LEO who would let a truly unsafe act slide with a warning.

Contacts for the sake of contact, depending on the attitude of the officer involved, are at best a stressful inconvenience to the motorist, and at worst an intimidating fishing expedition in search of something bigger.

Please understand that I have the highest respect and regard for our LEOs out there on the streets and highways doing a dangerous and thankless job. Most of what is questionable and dangerous about their duties has been thrust upon them by politicians.

Kevin

[KD5NRH]

I'd say if a trooper patrols his assignment and encounters no violators or accidents, he's had a fully successful shift!

In that case, the most successful one in the state must have been the one that "patrolled" the back parking lot of the gas station on 380 a couple miles east of Denton most nights when I was making that drive. Pretty impressive technique, though; he made it look like he was asleep so folks wouldn't pay any attention to him. :

The "minimum required contacts" rule may have been necessary at one time to check up on trooper performance. But these days, GPS trackers and cheap and easy. Not to mention it's fairly easy to check records of a trooper's radio and/or MDT activity.

This, IMO, would be the best solution; not only would tracking equipment provide instant accountability, but it would dramatically increase safety in cases where the dispatcher is unable to get a response from the officer.

Besides, as has already been stated, it is quite possible for a trooper to meet their quota early in the shift by being picky, or to simply make sure they're on the road during a high traffic time. The rest of the shift coud then be spent napping or sitting at the local cafe.

[KBCraig]

I'd say if a trooper patrols his assignment and encounters no violators or accidents, he's had a fully successful shift!

In that case, the most successful one in the state must have been the one that "patrolled" the back parking lot of the gas station on 380 a couple miles east of Denton most nights when I was making that drive.

So, you think that constitutes patrolling his assigned area? I phrased it that way for a reason.

[txinvestigator]

Here's what it boils down to with my dislike of contact quotas: if troopers are stopping people and wind up issuing warnings, they're essentially admitting that there was no unsafe act being committed. I don't know of any LEO who would let a truly unsafe act slide with a warning.

That is not true at all. Texas has a prima facia speed limit law, and there are many equipment violations that get warnings too. Troopers, as well as other LEO's, have discretion in writing tickets or warnings.

It is near impossible to drive on occupied roads for 8 hours and not observe multiple violations.

[KBCraig]

Texas has a prima facia speed limit law, and there are many equipment violations that get warnings too. Troopers, as well as other LEO's, have discretion in writing tickets or warnings.

What the heck, it's been a while. I guess this is our day to argue.

Texas has a prima facia speed limit law; the law says that exceeding the limit is prima facia evidence of unsafe speed. But the words on a page, and numbers on a sign, do not mean that exceeding an arbitrary limit is actually unsafe. I know you understand the difference between malum prohibitum and malum in se.

I stated that I don't believe a LEO would issue a mere warning when he was seeing something that was actually unsafe. A burned out license plate bulb is an equipment violation, but isn't unsafe; having no tail lights or brake lights at night is unsafe, and I don't believe a LEO would just give a written warning and let a motorist continue in that unsafe condition.

It is near impossible to drive on occupied roads for 8 hours and not observe multiple violations.

I didn't say that it is possible. I was only pointing out a different way of measuring success. I also made a distinction between violations and driving that is actually unsafe.

At work, we consider eight hours of boredom to be the best measure of success. (The extreme lack of boredom at my job lately is evidence that a year of extreme staffing cuts has been a monumental failure.)

Kevin

[Chris]

At work, we consider eight hours of boredom to be the best measure of success.

do you know how many times i've walked in for a day shift and midnights says, "we were bored to death," and i end up spending the rest of the day taking reports for stuff that happened on the previous midnight shift?

and your theory about writing tickets is wrong. i've written tickets for 10mph over the limit, and i've given warnings for 60mph over the limit. it's purely discretionary and you consider the circumstances in each. when i was strictly traffic, i didn't care what i stopped you for, a ticket was the standard protocol.

[jbirds1210]

i've given warnings for 60mph over the limit.

WOW She must have been beautiful! j/k
Jason