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  1. #1
    Yoda of Radar
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    Default Pleasant Valley police officers productive in catching traff

    Pleasant Valley police officers productive in catching traffic violations
    By Angie Anaya Borgedalen
    Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:21 AM CST
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    Motorists driving through Pleasant Valley might want to keep an eye on the speedometer and a light foot on the gas pedal.

    Although Pleasant Valley has about one-tenth the population of nearby Liberty, the town’s police officers hand out a lot of traffic citations by comparison.

    According to mandated statistics compiled annually for the Missouri attorney general’s office, Pleasant Valley officers issued 2,632 traffic tickets in 2007. During that same period, Liberty officers issued 5,223 tickets, but recent increased enforcement along Kansas Street could boost that number in next year’s report. Some motorists stopped get more than one citation, for example, if they are speeding and not wearing a seat belt.

    Capt. David Tedesco of Liberty said since the department had added a third officer to traffic enforcement in December, police in 2007 issued 69 more tickets than the year before.

    Pleasant Valley has nine full-time officers and six reserve officers, Chief Jim Daum said. Liberty has 39 full-time officers and four reserves. Pleasant Valley’s population is approximately 3,300 and Liberty’s is approximately 30,000.

    Pleasant Valley Mayor Dennis Todd said the city collected $212,894 in revenue from its traffic enforcement. Liberty collected approximately $546,000, said finance manager Marcella McCoy.

    Of the 2,024 traffic stops made in 2007 by Pleasant Valley officers, 1,789 motorists were white, 171 were black, 51 were Latino, six were Asian and seven were classified as other or unknown. Of the 3,621 stops made by Liberty, 3,258 motorists were white, 200 were black, 97 were Latino, 15 were Native American, 27 were Asian and 24 were classified as other or unknown.

    Todd said Pleasant Valley did not compile statistics on how many of those given tickets or stopped lived outside the city limits.

    “The state did not require us to report this information, and so we do not have that data available,” Todd said.

    Tedesco said Liberty found that 60 percent of those stopped did not live in Liberty.

    “That 60 percent has held steady for years and years,” Tedesco said.

    Officials from both cities said they did not require officers to meet quotas.

    “We have no quotas but do have a productivity program,” Todd said.

    According to an e-mail dated Dec. 20, 2007, from Daum to officers about citations, Daum said he expected productivity.

    “I said that I expected you all to be productive and that a traffic stop an hour is what is expected,” Daum said. “I went on to say that four-five citations resulting from those stops would indicate that you are being productive.”

    In a press release, Daum said the department was implementing a productivity analysis survey that

    would measure the effectiveness of what officers did during their shifts.

    “Our officers serve the community in a number of ways, some of which are difficult to measure,” Daum said in the release.

    He said the department had started sending out customer service surveys to help gauge the public’s perception about such things as “common courtesy and overall competence.”

    “The objective is to develop practical measurement strategies that validate that our officers are working and that work is purposeful and important to the community,” Daum said in the release.

    Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.
    Laser Interceptor Dual, Laser Interceptor Quad, Valentine 1 & The Escort 8500 X50 - Blue, Uniden BC296D, GRE500, Lasershield, 2011 Kia Soul +, Yamaha FZ6, 2005 Black Dodge Neon SRT-4,


  2. #2
    Yoda of Radar
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    Default Re: Pleasant Valley police officers productive in catching t

    Officials from both cities said they did not require officers to meet quotas.

    “We have no quotas but do have a productivity program,” Todd said.
    Ah, the wonderful incentive program you get 10 speeders per day and I'll give you.....



    Quota -
    1. the share or proportional part of a total that is required from, or is due or belongs to, a particular district, state, person, group, etc.
    2. a proportional part or share of a fixed total amount or quantity.

    3. the number or percentage of persons of a specified kind permitted to enroll in a college, join a club, immigrate to a country, etc.

    Productive -
    –adjective
    1. having the power of producing; generative; creative: a productive effort.
    2. producing readily or abundantly; fertile: a productive vineyard.
    3. causing; bringing about (usually fol. by of): conditions productive of crime and sin.
    4. Economics. producing or tending to produce goods and services having exchange value.
    5. Grammar. (of derivational affixes or patterns) readily used in forming new words, as the suffix -ness.
    6. (in language learning) of or pertaining to the language skills of speaking and writing (opposed to receptive).

    Humm sounds like the same thing to me???
    Laser Interceptor Dual, Laser Interceptor Quad, Valentine 1 & The Escort 8500 X50 - Blue, Uniden BC296D, GRE500, Lasershield, 2011 Kia Soul +, Yamaha FZ6, 2005 Black Dodge Neon SRT-4,


  3. #3

    Default Re: Pleasant Valley police officers productive in catching traff

    It's exactly the same thing. The City of Pleasant Valley thinks they're being slick by covering this up as a "productivity program" but the sad reality is-it's a quota. Quotas are illegal. Period. That holds true in the State of Missouri and everywhere else in the U.S. I believe the Supreme Court ruled those unconstitutional a while back. Many other police agencies have productivity programs, but they don't require officers to write a specified number of tickets.

    If they try to discipline or terminate any one of those officers, the city is setting themselves up for one heck of a lawsuit. All I can say is sit back and watch. It will only be a matter of time before this comes back to bite them in the a**.

 

 

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