By Joanna Putman
Police1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A bill introduced to the Ohio House would prohibit ticket and arrest quotas for all law enforcement in the state, WCMH reported.
House Bill 333 would prevent agencies from using a quota system to “evaluate, promote, compensate, transfer or discipline a local or state police officer,” according to the report. The bill applies to both formal and informal quota systems.
The bill was proposed by Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) and Kevin Miller (R-Newark). Miller served on the Ohio State Patrol for more than 20 years, according to the report.
Sweeney said that a state police union reached out to her with the idea for the bill.
“We hear from law enforcement that [quotas take] them out of their neighborhoods, it takes them out of doing their most important job and that is to protect public safety,” Sweeney said. “And if there is an arbitrary quota that says ‘you have to write 20 traffic tickets’ and they are then either not able to fully do their due diligence on their other work or if there’s a call, that’s really concerning.”
To enforce the law, if it passes, the attorney general will establish an anonymous form where officers could report the use of quota systems, according to the report. The claims would be investigated within a year of receiving the report.
“I just don’t believe that our law enforcement officers should be used to be generating revenue,” Rep. Miller said. “I certainly understand that as a result of writing citations there’s revenue generated, but that shouldn’t be the primary reason officers are out enforcing laws.”