If you drive through Hopkinton, RI, keep this in mind: The officers you see are each required to write 20 traffic tickets per month, “more or less,” under a new Police Department policy.

Excuses, like being busy doing something else, or having taken vacation days, “are not acceptable,” Lt. Daniel C. Baruti said in a March 3 internal e-mail that spells out the policy.

Drivers who think they have been ticketed unfairly often suspect that they were cited because of a police quota rather than their driving. The police almost universally deny that quotas exist.

The e-mail says, in bold, italic type, “Do not forward this e-mail.”

Baruti, Police Chief John S. Scuncio and Town Manager William A. DiLibero acknowledged Hopkinton’s policy after The Journal obtained a copy of the e-mail.

However, they denied that it amounts to a ticket quota. Instead, the lieutenant described the numerical goal as a “target.” He said he was surprised that the term “quota” has popped up. “I didn’t even think of the word ‘quota’ ” until a sergeant brought it up, he said.

Baruti and the other local officials said that the policy is a management tool intended to make the police more productive. Although it has drawn some criticism, Baruti said, the policy is legal and that they have no intention of abandoning it.

The practical effect, Baruti said, “is that somebody who offended and might have gotten off, won’t get off and will get a ticket after all.”

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The following is an article I came across on an Associated Press feed:

The mayor of Warren, Michigan says a warning wasn’t enough after he was stopped for speeding. So he asked for a ticket instead — and got it. Warren Mayor Jim Fouts was pulled over Monday on the way to City Hall for going 45 mph in a 40 mph zone. The officer told him to watch it next time.

Fouts says he was uncomfortable the entire day with just a warning, thinking it might be construed as favoritism. So he called the deputy police commissioner and demanded the ticket.

Police delivered it to Fouts’ office and Fouts paid the $100 fine.

Fouts told The Detroit News that he “had to set an example.”

He had to “set an example”?! An example of what? How to be a numb nut? He was doing 5 mph over the limit. A warning is what was appropriate; and, he demanded a ticket. The cop probably didn’t even know he was the mayor.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS – When a suburban man with 60 traffic tickets smashed his Ferrari into another car, killing the driver, her 4-year-old son and himself in 2005, state and local officials responded by tightening loopholes in state traffic laws to make sure police and prosecutors have up-to-date information and can get problem drivers off the streets.

But now, some local lawmakers and prosecutors fear those efforts could be undermined by the growing interest in letting cameras enforce speed limits.

The problem, some say, is those speed-camera tickets wouldn’t get reported to the state as long as the driver pays the $100 fine. As a result, drivers who normally would risk losing their licenses would keep driving.

“You can’t have a system where you have ticket after ticket and just pay a fine. There has to be some kind of reporting to the secretary of state,” said DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett.

A plan pending in the state Senate would allow cities and villages to contract with camera companies to remotely issue speeding tickets.

DuPage County created a computer program designed to correlate driving records from Illinois’ 102 counties to prevent repeatedly ticketed drivers from qualifying for court supervision. The program was developed after the tragic 2005 crash in West Chicago that prompted outrage from the victim’s family and the public at how the speeding driver was able to keep his license so long.

Because speed-camera violators would not be reported to the secretary of state unless the driver failed to pay five speed-camera tickets, DuPage’s database would become far less useful, Birkett said.

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