The Illinois House is considering whether to ban law enforcement agencies in the state from requiring officers to meet traffic ticket quotas.
The measure which passed the Senate last week would prevent departments from using ticket quotas in officer performance evaluations.
Democratic Rep. Jay Hoffman of Swansea is sponsoring the legislation.
“Some departments have mandated that officers write X amount of tickets a month or they could face discipline,” he said.
“Mandating the number of tickets they write, whether an offense is committed or not puts undue pressure on that officer to write tickets where maybe an offense didn't occur.”
Before passing in the Senate, the bill was amended over concerns that it would interfere too much with how police chiefs run their departments.
Its current form would still allow quotas on how much contact officers have with the public, said Hoffman.
“It does indicate that you can manage your department by ensuring the officer has contact with the community and has a requisite number of contacts,” he said.
In addition, the bill would still let departments set quotas if they are mandated as a condition of receiving state or federal grant money.
The measure, which is awaiting committee assignment, would require support from two-thirds of the House to be passed.
