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Washington Lawmakers Propose To Cuff Police Ticket Quotas

File photo. Legislation in the Washington House would forbid police agencies from rating officers by how many traffic tickets they hand out.
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File photo. Legislation in the Washington House would forbid police agencies from rating officers by how many traffic tickets they hand out.

Police agencies in Washington state would not be allowed to rate officers by how many traffic tickets they hand out under a proposal put forward by a former Spokane police officer.

Republican State Representative Jeff Holy presented the "no quotas" idea to a legislative committee Monday.

"When you have expectations, work product or quotas if you will, you compel an outcome. You remove the officer's discretion,” Holy said. “So there are issues as to the integrity of a law enforcement officer to act within his conscience and what he sees as a justifiable outcome to a situation here."

Holy's legislation is written broadly to forbid the number of citations issued from being considered in any performance review or for promotion or assignments.

His proposal drew support from several associations of police officers, but opposition from management. The Washington State Patrol and a lobbyist for sheriffs and police chiefs said officers ought to be evaluated on all of the things they do, including how many tickets they write.

As of today, the state House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee has not scheduled a vote on the "no quotas" bill. California is one of several states -- including New York, Illinois and Florida -- that currently have laws forbidding arrest or ticket quotas.

Copyright 2016 Northwest News Network

Correspondent Tom Banse is an Olympia-based reporter with more than three decades of experience covering Washington and Oregon state government, public policy, business and breaking news stories. Most of his career was spent with public radio's Northwest News Network, but now in semi-retirement his work is appearing on other outlets.
Tom Banse
Tom Banse covers national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports and human interest stories from across the Northwest. He reports from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. Tom's stories can be found online and heard on-air during "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.