Motorcycle officers in Colorado Springs should each be writing a minimum of 11 tickets a day, and their counterparts in patrol cars should issue at least one, according to internal police documents. But these aren’t quotas, Police Chief Richard Myers said.

During an impromptu media briefing Friday, Myers described them as guidelines that help supervisors keep track of their officers’ job performance while ensuring the Police Department is delivering on its goal of reducing the injuries, deaths and property damage that result from traffic crashes.

“We have more people killed on highways in this city than we do in homicides,” he said. “This is not about revenue.” A form for evaluating motorcycle officers includes the following “performance objective”: “Officers will average a minimum of 2.2 violations” an hour.

Two violations can be written on the same ticket, so the objective asks for at least 11 tickets during a 10-hour shift and up to 22, police said. They are to be issued at the top 25 crash locations in the city, the form says, underscoring Myers’ directive that police “go where the crashes are” in a bid to prevent them.

“I’ve had several guys that write more than several times that,” said Sgt. Steve Weber, a supervisor in the motorcycle unit. “The majority of these guys don’t even have to worry about these numbers. These are really for our low performers.”

Ticket quotas – feared and despised by drivers everywhere – demand that officers meet goals or face mandatory discipline, Myers told reporters. That’s not the case here, he said. Most officers have little problem exceeding the guidelines, and those who fail are excused if they can demonstrate they were busy pursuing calls and other duties, he said. Written and verbal communication, “customer service,” initiative and use of time, teamwork, leadership and problem solving are among other categories considered during an officer’s three annual performance reviews, documents show.

“We look at the total package. That’s the difference,” Myers said.

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Mississippi state House votes 117-3 to ban red light and speed cameras. Public protest against photo ticketing grows in Maryland and Missouri.

A near-unanimous Mississippi state House of Representatives voted Wednesday to ban red light cameras and speed cameras while anti-camera citizen protest movements gathered steam in other parts of the country. Mississippi state Representative Edward Blackmon, Jr. (D-Canton) inadvertently kicked off the effort when he introduced a measure designed to give legislative approval to the use of photo enforcement so long as ticket records were not shared with insurance companies. Blackmon’s proposal was a clever way to encourage the city councils of Columbus, Jackson, McComb, Natchez, Southaven and Tupelo, all of which have approved red light camera ordinances, in the guise of placing limitations on automated ticketing machines.

The state House Judiciary Committee would have none of it. The panel rewrote Blackmon’s measure to ban not just the reporting of photo tickets to insurance companies, but also the issuance a photo ticket for any offense other than a toll violation.

“A civil or criminal traffic citation may not be issued as the result of the use of automated recording equipment on state, county or municipal highways, roads and streets, and any evidence obtained from such use shall not be reported to the Department of Public Safety for any purpose, to any person or entity for the use on any credit report or to any insurance company for insurance purposes,” House Bill 1568 now states.

Blackmon was one of only three House members who voted against the revised legislation which now heads to the state Senate for its consideration.

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