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Sheriff's Lieutenant Disciplined for Telling County Board He Set Ticket Quotas

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posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 07:13 AM
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I'd be inclined to say that intelligence isn't a big requirement for police work, but this was pretty stupid considering that this lieutenant was in the county police force for ten plus years without any problems and he said this at a county board meeting. I can't see why he would have made such a remark admitting that it was an illegal practice, but he is a county worker and I have some experience that proves to me that this particular county is not the best at following the rules.


"So I know you're not allowed to do it by federal law and state law, but I do put stipulations on the numbers I want to see by the end of their shift. And we have in the past, the guys that can't perform numbers have been removed from all overtime for that particular grant for the remainder of the year," the lieutenant said.


The thing that gets me is he has been at the job for over ten years and that he has a good job record, that seems to indicate to me that this is just SOP and was part of what he was expected to do in his job description. Why else did he make this a standard practice and admit it so casually? Not to mention he made it to lieutenant over his career.

Of course he was disciplined, kept his job, and this type of police corruption will probably never get investigated to find the source of this illegal practice he felt so confident in announcing at the board meeting. It took almost two weeks for the "slip" to reach the ears of the new county Sheriff Pat Hedlund, even though it was said at the meeting and even on video tape.


The lieutenant, who has been employed by the department for more than a decade, will not be allowed to supervise the grant program. His other responsibilities as lieutenant have not changed.


Link to Article 1


Sheriff Patrick Hedlund told FOX 17, after a thorough investigation, and after speaking to Lt. Palmiter, he has suspended the officer outlined in the union contract and department policy, but has not fired him.


Link to Article 2

Based on what was said in the articles, it seems to me to be an unspoken assumption that this sort of behavior has been on going and completely acceptable for the police to break the law when it suits them. I don't expect to hear any more about this in the future and things will undoubtedly go on as they always have in the past.


The board of commissioners approved the grant acceptance with no further questioning, but Newaygo County Administrator Tobi Lake believes the officer may have been referring to the requirements of the Office of Highway Safety Planning grant, rather than quotas. “That’s what I took, but I can’t speak for the sheriff. When we looked into this, it was the intention and responsibility that we have under the grant,” said Lake.



The grant requires officers to average a certain number of stops per hour over the course of their shift. A law passed in 2010 makes ticket quotas illegal, but there is a difference between getting stopped and getting a ticket.


Link to Article 3

That sure sounds like a quota system to me and an indication that it is a common practice. No drunks around? Just harass anyone on the road to meet this "average number of stops per hour". I hope the general public isn't that stupid to believe this isn't a thinly veiled quota system.

Also, I know about Tobi Lake and he is one of the worst for "bending the rules", he has a lot of clout and his excuses are to be expected. I hope they fry all these bastards and I have a mind to start a grass roots movement to make sure it doesn't get swept under the rug like it will certainly be. However, I'd be a huge target in the community and wouldn't want to go through that crap storm. Maybe I should submit a few editorials with a fake name just to see if the media picks it up.
edit on 3-3-2015 by MichiganSwampBuck because: Typo



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 07:20 AM
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a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck


Sheriff Patrick Hedlund told FOX 17, after a thorough investigation, and after speaking to Lt. Palmiter, he has suspended the officer outlined in the union contract and department policy, but has not fired him.

Probably for admitting quotas publicly…

Ticket "quotas" are part of that unspoken police(y).



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 07:32 AM
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The biggest give away in his statement was "And we have in the past". That is certainly admitting that this is a long standing standard practice and he felt OK with breaking the laws.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 08:18 AM
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a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

It's a relatively standard practice in all law enforcement. The only thing that's new is that he stated it publicly.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 08:36 AM
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I thought is was standard operating procedure in any police force. Otherwise these guys would sit in the donut shop all day. They get paid to harass citizens while the criminals laugh in their faces. When did they ever prevent a crime? No they get called after the crime is committed. Quotas gives them something to focus on.
We see the state fuzz sitting on the side of the road at the beginning of every month to catch the folks late on inspections or registrations. Why do that if there isn't a quota?
Does an unregistered vehicle represent some Kind of hazard we need to be protected from. Does failing to pay personal property taxes on time make someone a dangerous undesirable element?



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 08:40 AM
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a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Why would quotas be considered against the law? One would think it speaks to quality control. We know they're out there doing their "job" this way.
I see it was declared illegal in 2010. Someone said thinly veiled but this baby is totally naked and dancing in the middle of a busy intersection. So much so that I think if you asked the average citizen if the police have ticket quotas the answer would overwhelmingly be yes.
It's something every body knows. Kind of like 15 minutes will save you 15% on car insurance.
edit on 332015 by AutumnWitch657 because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 11:05 AM
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We should ALL be trying to de-fund police departments, instead of trying to prosecute their employees or change laws. Such measures have proven, overwhelming, to be ineffective. De-funding police departments is perfectly legal and solves the bad apple problem MUCH faster, than constitutional challenges in the court system.

Activists should be finding ways to, legally, cut the budget for NYPD and all the other PD's acting illegally. By forming their own opposing PAC's (Political Action Committee) focused on chipping away at this single Budget reduction issue, little by little, across the country. Cutting off the money supply will stop them dead, cold, in their tracks.

Defunding government is a sensible voter solution to reining in local government By Dave Duffy

This is the simplest answer that nearly everyone continues to ignore.

LEOs are in place to do the following and NOTHING MORE:

1. Protect themselves.
2. Maximize their total compensation.
3. Act as a source of revenue generation for the department currently employing them, the union they belong to and the local governments authorizing their activities.
4. Protecting the commercial interests of national corporations (with PAC's lobbying on the behalf of these big corps)
5. Protecting the private property of large, influential, land owners, residing within their jurisdiction, that are also contributing to and participate in local politics.
6. Controlling dissenting narratives that would interfere with 1-5.

They’ve been totally co-opted, insulated from consequences and the citizens are picking up the tab. Its that simple, but no one understands this, nor are many willing to accept these facts. Also most importantly, that’s how Fascism works and in turn uses domestic police forces.

Here is a good example from a father and son experience with ticket quotas:
How a cop trying to fill a quota turned into a potential civics lesson

Wasn't it recently reported that NYPD work slowdowns resulted in less tickets and less revenue? Without the income from these tickets, the city's coffers would see deep cuts. So the city's "Revenue Agents" have GOT to get out there and hit people bogus with violations.
NYPD ‘slowdown’ costing the city $10M a week in revenue

The Police Slowdown Has Cost New York City Millions in Lost Parking-Ticket Revenue

Criminal summonses and traffic tickets are down more than 90 percent from this time last year.

How much longer are US citizens going to tolerate this "policing" farce?
edit on 3-3-2015 by boohoo because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 11:48 AM
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originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Why would quotas be considered against the law? One would think it speaks to quality control. We know they're out there doing their "job" this way.
I see it was declared illegal in 2010. Someone said thinly veiled but this baby is totally naked and dancing in the middle of a busy intersection. So much so that I think if you asked the average citizen if the police have ticket quotas the answer would overwhelmingly be yes.
It's something every body knows. Kind of like 15 minutes will save you 15% on car insurance.


The same reason why the electric chair doesn't use quotas.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 11:50 AM
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originally posted by: boohoo
We should ALL be trying to de-fund police departments, instead of trying to prosecute their employees or change laws. Such measures have proven, overwhelming, to be ineffective. De-funding police departments is perfectly legal and solves the bad apple problem MUCH faster, than constitutional challenges in the court system.

Activists should be finding ways to, legally, cut the budget for NYPD and all the other PD's acting illegally. By forming their own opposing PAC's (Political Action Committee) focused on chipping away at this single Budget reduction issue, little by little, across the country. Cutting off the money supply will stop them dead, cold, in their tracks.

Defunding government is a sensible voter solution to reining in local government By Dave Duffy

This is the simplest answer that nearly everyone continues to ignore.

LEOs are in place to do the following and NOTHING MORE:

1. Protect themselves.
2. Maximize their total compensation.
3. Act as a source of revenue generation for the department currently employing them, the union they belong to and the local governments authorizing their activities.
4. Protecting the commercial interests of national corporations (with PAC's lobbying on the behalf of these big corps)
5. Protecting the private property of large, influential, land owners, residing within their jurisdiction, that are also contributing to and participate in local politics.
6. Controlling dissenting narratives that would interfere with 1-5.

They’ve been totally co-opted, insulated from consequences and the citizens are picking up the tab. Its that simple, but no one understands this, nor are many willing to accept these facts. Also most importantly, that’s how Fascism works and in turn uses domestic police forces.

Here is a good example from a father and son experience with ticket quotas:
How a cop trying to fill a quota turned into a potential civics lesson

Wasn't it recently reported that NYPD work slowdowns resulted in less tickets and less revenue? Without the income from these tickets, the city's coffers would see deep cuts. So the city's "Revenue Agents" have GOT to get out there and hit people bogus with violations.
NYPD ‘slowdown’ costing the city $10M a week in revenue

The Police Slowdown Has Cost New York City Millions in Lost Parking-Ticket Revenue

Criminal summonses and traffic tickets are down more than 90 percent from this time last year.

How much longer are US citizens going to tolerate this "policing" farce?


Yes, I agree completely.

It must be done by each and every one of us in our home towns.

If it is true, this national police force garbage is in anticipation and opposition of that very movement.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 11:51 AM
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Sounds like they will stop you without cause..not good, and why he would say it is because they generaly have a free ride to do as they please..a casual slip up in front of us because indiscretions are not dealt with.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 11:52 AM
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a reply to: AutumnWitch657
Quota's are wrong because they may have nothing to do with just cause..sorry that is real important. They are not allowed to pull you over for nothing.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 12:04 PM
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If there were monthly quotas in my part of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, they could be met on a daily basis without even trying. People around here are too stupid or too lazy to be bothered with stopping at a stop sign most of the time. In neighborhoods, people drive down the middle of the road as fast as possible in a 30MPH area with kids playing outside. Rarely do police even patrol the area despite these worthless drivers endangering everyone.

On occasion they do, and any time I see one of those dumb morons pulled over, I do a little happy dance.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 01:28 PM
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originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: AutumnWitch657
Quota's are wrong because they may have nothing to do with just cause..sorry that is real important. They are not allowed to pull you over for nothing.



Not true. You can be pulled over for any reason a cop desires. A search of you or your car requires probable cause but they can get around that by smelling something.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 01:59 PM
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originally posted by: vonclod
Sounds like they will stop you without cause..not good, and why he would say it is because they generaly have a free ride to do as they please..a casual slip up in front of us because indiscretions are not dealt with.


I think that he said it freely at the county board meeting because they're all corrupt and freely talk about their abuses all the time. This idiot just forgot that it was being video taped and that maybe one or two regular people were at the meeting and heard him admit that it was illegal to do.

I don't know who goes to the county board meetings, occasionally people will attend to make a complaint or something, not like anyone on the board really cares what those people say though. Why else would it take 34 days after the meeting to get on the local news? I'd bet that nothing would have been said if someone outside the board hadn't heard this at the meeting. I actually can't believe that the video didn't get lost or destroyed after this huge flub, that sounds par for the course in such situations.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 02:13 PM
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a reply to: boohoo

That was a great story on civics lessons BooHoo. Great stuff and strange how it happened that very day the dad talked about it to his kid.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 06:59 PM
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a reply to: vonclod

They wouldn't need to pull over innocent people to meet a quota. Plenty of speeders and people running lights to make the grade.



posted on Mar, 3 2015 @ 08:39 PM
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Something to consider.

It should be a good thing when the police have nothing to report, as there have been no crimes committed. This should be an indication that they have done a good job, locked up all the bad guys and it's just the law abiding citizens left in a peaceful community. After all, are they not called "peace officers"?

The quota system is just a predatory practice to generate revenue from lawful citizens on trumped up charges during times when everyone is behaving and obeying the laws. Why can't the sheriff be satisfied with a job well done when he has no crime to report in his county? A lack of crimes should be the measure of an effective police force, not how many tickets they can issue in a given time period.

I guess if there are no criminals to bust, they need to invent them to feel like they are doing their job. It would be like the fire department starting fires to put out because they don't have any calls to go to. I'm not saying it's like Mayberry around here, but it isn't like Detroit, Chicago or New York either.
edit on 3-3-2015 by MichiganSwampBuck because: Added extra comment for clarity



posted on Mar, 4 2015 @ 02:04 AM
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a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

It's a growth based economy and metrics are often used to justify spending. If crimes are down, arrests will naturally fall. But if arrests fall, the police force looks less effective. With fewer arrests there is less of a need for officers, less budgets, and they become less essential to the community. The way to combat that, is to show that more crime is being caught. With baseline budgeting, that needs to justify even an inflation based increase each year. That means more arrests every year.

This runs into a problem when less crimes are being committed. It means more people are being arrested for fewer things. Eventually you run into the problem we have now. People are arrested for non crimes, just to fill the necessary quotas to meet the statistical expectations.



posted on Mar, 4 2015 @ 04:56 AM
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a reply to: Aazadan

That is a great answer and explains why the police try to invent crimes when there aren't any. Less crime equals less funding. But if the level of police activity is causing a drop in crime, you'd think that they would keep up that level of funding. Your post seems to offer the best answer considering that it was a grant the board was trying to approve during that session.

Maybe the next step is for the police to instigate a group or individuals to go around and cause trouble to insure that crime continues to rise thereby insuring future funding for their department. Actually that sounds like the MO used to stir up terrorist activities, like finding some loner and pushing them along into a terrorist operation by providing bomb making information, materials and a suggested target.



posted on Mar, 4 2015 @ 11:22 AM
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a reply to: Aazadan
The laws vary I think..Im pretty sure here(Canada) they need to have cause, your right though could be different in the U.S.
Cheers.



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