Gentle Reader Lordfarquad Query: Does Anyone Know What the Deadline is for OPD's Traffic Ticket Quotas?

We invite any public safety officers or others who read this blog to set the record straight regarding the good Lord F's query

Gentle Reader Lordfarquad poses an interesting question in one of our comments sections down below:

Does anyone know what the deadline is for OPD's traffic ticket quotas? I could be wrong, but it seems like I see a rash of cars pulled over by OPD right around the 20th-25th of each month. Anyone know? Maybe I'm just imagining it.

Lord F asks a question broad and important enough to deserve front page space; and traffic ticket quotas have also of course been a frequent topic of discussion here at WCF. So we have no hesitation to again dive into a discussion on this topic, especially on an otherwise slow news day.

Inasmuch as OPD personnel are evaluated for traffic citation production at periodic intervals, we'll take a wild guess, for starters, that tallies are compiled at the end of every month, which would support Lord F's hunch that traffic officers may be scrambling to make quotas around the times of the month that he's set forth.

We'll confess that this is merely speculation on our part however, and will therefore invite any public safety officers who read this blog to set the record straight, regarding the good Lord F's query.

And what about the rest of our readers? Do any of you wish to share your anecdotal observations about OPD traffic citations being possibly bunched-up around the end of the month?

Salt Lake Tribune: Paul Rolly Hammers Ticket Quotas

Writing revenue-producing tickets in Salt Lake City's Glendale area proves to be as easy as pulling trout from a stocked backyard pond.

By Curmudgeon

Something interesting today on the constant Weber County Forum topic of ticket quotas. Here's the gist, from Paul Rolly's column in today's Salt Lake Tribune:

Making quotas?
Peter Hasby was approaching the intersection of Fayette Drive on 900 West in Salt Lake City's Glendale area Aug. 28 about 6:30 p.m. when he noticed a motorcycle cop pulling over a motorist and several other motorcycle cops converged just up the street.
Distracted by all the uniforms, he then noticed out of the corner of his eye someone yelling and waving on the curb as he went through the intersection.
That's when he got pulled over.
Within a span of a couple of minutes, Hasby and four other drivers were pulled over in a sting operation to nab motorists for not stopping for a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
The guy yelling and waving was the bait and the cops were there to write up tickets as easy as pulling trout from a stocked backyard pond.
When Hasby protested to the officer that the pedestrian had not even entered the crosswalk, the cop told him he could appeal the ticket. All he had to do was lose several hours of work to appear in court and plead his case to what we're all sure would be a very sympathetic hearing officer.

Link to Rolly's column is here.

Editor's addendum: One more reason to consider re-electing five-term Weber County House District Legislative Nine candidate Neil Hansen back for a sixth term, we thinks. We talked to Representative Hansen earlier today, and he tells us he'll run a new anti-ticket quota bill every year 'til hell freezes, or until such a bill passes in the Utah legislature, whichever comes first.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

The Plunder of the Lumpencitizens Will Continue

Senate Committee kills Rep. Neil Hansen's citation quota prohibition bill for the second straight year

It’s a little far-reaching for any legislator to pass legislation that micro-manages how we implement the laws we make.

John Greiner
Utah State Senator
Ogden City Chief of Police
Standard-Examiner
February 15, 2008

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

Frederick Bastiat
The Law
1850

To our considerable disappointment, this morning's Standard-Examiner reports that state representative Neil Hansen's HB-264, which would have prohibited Utah law enforcement agencies from requiring officers to write a set number of citations in a specific time period, was killed in the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee yesterday, by a 3-2 vote, with Ogden's own police chief and state senator (who sits on the committee) delivering the fatal coup d'gras.

The plunder of the lumpencitizens will no doubt continue. Local governments will continue to place bounties on the lumpencitizens heads -- for another year, at least.

Against our strongest impulses, we'll resist the temptation to launch another rant on this topic for now. Readers who are unfamiliar with WCF's position on this subject can however bone up on a couple of years worth of collected rants here. For now, we'll just put the topic of traffic citation quotas on the back burner, and revive it again prior to the 2009 legislative session. We have many other fish to fry.

Before closing, we offer a Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat this morning to Rep. Neil Hansen, for his noble effort in attempting to serve his constituents with this bill, while other elected legislators served the interests of the well-oiled right wing socialist state instead. Hopefully there will be better news on this subject around the same time next year.

Comments, anyone?

The House Votes to Ban Ticket Quotas

Next stop: The State Senate

We're pleased to report this morning that Representative Neil Hansen's anti-ticket quota bill (H.B. 264) cleared the House yesterday, in which connection we incorporate the lead paragraphs from this morning's Standard-Examiner story :

SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Neil Hansen’s ticket quota bill squeaked through a vote on the House floor Monday.

Representatives voted 36-31 with five absent for House Bill 264, sponsored by Hansen, D-Ogden. The bill, which prohibits law enforcement agencies from mandating ticket quotas, now goes to the Senate for further consideration.

Although it was indeed a relatively tight vote, it wasn't quite as close as the Std-Ex reports. The state legislature's website reports the vote was actually 39-31; and Rep. Hansen informed us this morning that the latter number is correct. We won't quibble over the Std-Ex's mal-reporting of the actual vote count however. A win is a win; and the important thing now is that the bill is now headed for the Senate.

We are also informed that the bill will be sponsored in the Senate by GOP Senator Howard Stephenson. Unlike last year, we anticipate this bill will receive bipartisan support during this legislative session; and with a warhorse Republican like Sen. Stephenson carrying this legislation, we believe we can expect a far more favorable result than last year, when the 2007 version of the bill was unceremoniously killed in committee.

We once again congratulate Rep. Hansen for his heretofore success and tenacity; and we further extend our best wishes for a similar favorable result in the Senate.

We also provide a link to the Utah Senate roster, for the convenience of those readers who would like to actively lobby their own Utah state senator, to urge the prompt passage of this citizen-friendly and long overdue legislation.

The Salt Lake Tribune Endorses Traffic Citation Quotas

The SLTRib jumps aboard the evil status quo bandwagon

With State Representative Hansen's anti-ticket quota bill barrelling through the legislature, we knew it was inevitable that we'd hear from somebody in the print media, parroting the talking points of the evil pro-ticket quota faction, and arguing for preservation of the status quo. That's exactly the editorial that we got this morning from -- of all newspapers -- The Salt Lake Tribune. We'll skip the lead paragraphs and cut to the chief arguments, reeling them off one by one, offering our own brief rebuttal as we move along:

1) The "deterrence argument." "Last year, 285 motorists died on Utah streets and highways, according to the Utah Department of Transportation. Can you guess what the leading cause of highway fatalities was? That's right, speeding. At least 72 deaths were attributed to speeding last year, 23 more than in 2006. And traffic citations are a proven deterrent to driving at unsafe speeds."

We've heard the "intuitive" deterrence argument before; but have never heard any proponent back it up with sound evidentiary facts. It's our perception however that there exists very little actual legitimate research data on the subject, and that what data does exist argues against the proposition that traffic citations are a proven deterrent to driving at unsafe speeds.

In that connection we link this 2007 study from the State of Maryland, following the behavior of 3,739,951 Maryland licensed drivers over a period of a year. The study reached the counter-intuitive conclusion that "drivers who receive speeding citations are at increased risk of receiving subsequent speeding citations, suggesting that speeding citations have limited effects on deterrence in the context of the current traffic enforcement system."

While we don't assert that this Maryland study is necessarily dispositive of the issue, we believe it illustrates that the unsupported notion that traffic citations by themselves are a significant deterrence to unsafe driving is highly suspect.

And if there exist other studies which support the ticket quota proponents' propoposition, we believe the burden is upon the proponents to produce their data.

2) The "management argument." "And why shouldn't a manager, whether it's a newspaper editor or a factory supervisor or a chief of police, require a certain level of production from an employee? A quota, especially when traffic patrols are conducted in danger zones, assures that officers are earning their pay, and the public is being protected. "

We submit that law enforcement agency management already has a broad array of criteria available to monitor and manage personnel, without imposing fixed quotas upon police officers. A few of these are set forth in Ogden City's own performance evaluation criteria, of which ticket quotas comprise only one factor. These same measurement criteria are likewise available to all law enforcement agencies in Utah. Enough is enough, we say.

As the SL Trib editors suggest in their lead paragraphs, ticket quotas are repugnant to motorists, traffic officers and virtually everyone but the city treasurer. To deprive law enforcement management of this single management "tool" would in practice deprive county sheriffs and police chiefs of very little, and would greatly reduce the public perception, we believe, that the system is rigged to shake down Utah drivers for government revenue.

3) The "local control" argument. "It's also a bit ironic that the Legislature, which rails against federal mandates on states, would try to tell local officials and law enforcement leaders how to run their affairs. Not to mention hypocritical. Lawmakers don't want police supervisors telling officers how to do their jobs, so they propose a law that, in effect, is telling police supervisors how to do their jobs."

This is the craziest argument of all, in our opinion. As part of our state government system of "checks and balances," it's the job of the legislature to curb excesses in local government. When local governments apply state law in a manner contrary to fundamental notions of fairness and equity, as in the case of ticket quotas, it's necessary and proper for the state legislature to intervene and set things right. The banishment of ticket quotas by the state legislature would not be the equivalent of acts of the federal government to alter state laws and policies with superceding law and unfunded mandates. It's an analogy that doesn't simply fit the facts, and an illustration of the desperation of local governments who are threatened with loss of their very lucrative "cash cow."

Representative Hansen has an interesting take on this argument too: By banning ticket quotas, and returning discretion to the "cop on the street," the legislature will have achieved the ultimate in "local control." Our sworn police officers are charged with the ultimate in discretion every day they start their shifts. They have the discretion to make life and death decisions. Surely they ought to have the ultimate discretion whether to ticket a little old lady, who accidentally did a "California stop."

And if that's not enough to get you all riled up, check this out: Traffic Tickets Are Big Business... or this.

And what say our ever-thoughtful gentle readers?

Isn't it time that Utah joined the ranks of the dozen or so other enlightened states in the US of A, and banished ticket quotas once and for all?

Rep. Neil Hansen Wins the First Battle in His War Against Ticket Quotas

Bill to ban traffic citation quotas clears committee, and heads to the full house for a vote

It's no secret that Weber County Forum is strongly strongly opposed to the use by Utah law enforcement agencies of ticket citation quotas. As our regular long-time readers are painfully aware, we've been railing on this subject for several years. That's one reason we were particularly delighted to learn yesterday morning that Rep. Neil Hansen's (D-Ogden) HB-264, which would prohibit law enforcement agencies from requiring officers to issue a specific number of tickets, warnings or complaints within a specific time, yesterday cleared the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee by a 6-1 vote, paving the way for the bill to be presented to the House for a vote.

The Standard-Examiner's Loretta Park provides a front page story this morning on yesterday's committee hearing, including a fairly thorough summary of the witness testimony. Missing from this morning's story, however, is any discussion of the comments of committee member Rep. Carl Wimmer (R-South Jordan), who gently chastised some witnesses who testified against Hansen's proposed bill. As it turns out, Rep. Wimmer is himself a retired police officer, with personal experience with ticket quotas. As Rep. Wimmer commented, he himself had been admonished and denied promotions during his career in law enforcement, for failing to write three tickets a day; and he expressed his disappointment with individuals who refused to even admit the plain fact that ticket quotas exist at all. It would have been better, Rep. Wimmer commented, if advocates of ticket quotas were at least to concede that existing ticket quota systems are a useful law enforcement management tool, and argue from that position, rather than to mendaciously deny that such systems exist at all.

All in all however, reporter Parks provides a good writeup; and we were pleased to find this morning that the Standard-Examiner didn't bury this story somewhere on one of its back pages.

As an added bonus for those readers closely following this bill, we provide a link to the State Legislature's website, where a Real Player audio recording of yesterday's hearing is available. Our readers can fast forward to the last 35 minutes or so of the recording, for a sampling of the arguments, pro and con, which will be be no doubt re-argued as this bill progresses through the Utah Legislature.

We'd like to extend our congratulations this morning to Representative Hansen, along with our best wishes for success with this bill during this new legislative session.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Update 1/24/08 3:48 p.m. MT: The Salt Lake Tribune's most excellent Std-Ex veteran reporter Cathy McKitrick also has a story on this subject, published shortly after we published our main article, wherein Ms. McKitrick drills right down to Rep. Wimmer's comment, mentioned above:

Police agencies have long denied persistent rumors and complaints of traffic-ticket quotas, but a former cop now serving in the Legislature says they are real.

"I worked for a police department and had to write three tickets every day. That was a quota, and they exist," said Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, a former West Valley City and South Jordan officer.

Wimmer's revelation came during a legislative committee session Wednesday where lawmakers discussed Ogden Rep. Neil Hansen's HB 264, that would ban such mandates.

Hopefully Rep. Wimmer will make himself available for testimony in further legislative proceedings, especially any upcoming upcoming Senate committee hearings.

Traffic Ticket Quotas: Dueling Commentaries

Ticket quota advocates fight like badgers to preserve their ticket quota/justice court revenue stream

Traffic citation quotas are back in the Standard-Examiner news today, with this guest commentary by state representation Neil Hansen. Hansen's article sets forth the history of the "Citation Quota Prohibition Bill”, which passed in the house last year, but failed in senate committee by a tied 2-2 vote. As Hansen clearly explains, this legislation actually relates back to an even earlier 2000 bill which had been sponsored by Representative Dave Ure, Republican from Summit County. Rep. Hansen's proposed legislation, intended to address a problem which is pervasive in the state of Utah, goes back a long way indeed. Additionally, Rep. Hansen provides evidence, in careful detail, that a traffic citation quota system, with clear numeric criteria for specified time frames does exist in Emerald City.

Although Rep. Hansen's commentary was originally intended as a rebuttal to Greg Whinham's November 30 guest commentary, the Std-Ex has this morning framed its editorial page again in classic Std-Ex "he said - she said" fashion, with the insertion this morning of a second pro-quota article, this one from Ogden City's assistant police chief, Wayne Tarwater. Thus, Representative Hansen has TWO opposition editorials to rebut this morning.

Due to a problem with the Standard-Examiner's digital edition website this morning, we are unable to retrieve or link the full text of Chief Tarwater's piece, so we'll present it in summary form below, addressing the author's "points" one by one.

1) Chief Tarwater contends the Rep. Hansen's bill, which would simply prohibit performance criteria measuring set numbers of traffic tickets over fixed periods of time would prevent police department management from requiring the issuance of traffic tickets entirely. Chief Tarwater's argument is preposterous on it face, and he offers no convincing evidence that his officers, "Ogden's Finest," would behave unprofessionally -- and cease writing traffic tickets -- in the event that Rep. Hansen's bill is passed by the legislature.

2) Chief Tarwater then goes on to assert that there exists no evidence that ticket quota systems exist in Ogden or anywhere else. Of course regular WCF readers have already seen documentary proof to refute this patently false assertion. (It's right there at the bottom of page three -- right there in black and white.)

3) Chief Tarwater then suggests that Ogden City's current performance evaluation system is somehow permissible, because it was the subject of negotiations during the Ogden Police Benefit Association's 2005 salary negotiations. We believe this is flat untrue. We carefully followed those negotiations here on this board; and while these negotiations did indeed involve bringing public safety employees' pay into parity with other city employees, these negotiations did NOT, according to our understanding, involve negotiating specific criteria for individual officers' performance evaluation (PEP) scoring.

4) Chief Tarwater then argues that the current performance evaluation (ticket quota) system is not the "cash cow" that some critics have claimed it to be, and then launches into a tangential analysis of the ticket revenue "split" which occurs when traffic matters are adjudicated in Utah state courts. What Mr. Tarwater fails to mention however is the existence of Utah's municipal justice court system, such as now exists in Ogden, wherein ALL ticket revenue goes to the city, and NONE is divvied up with the state. Whether Mr. Tarwater is unaware of the existence of the justice court system -- or merely selective in his discussion of this issue we do not know. The net result, however, is that Chief Tarwater wholly fails to address the main issue, i.e., a municipal court system which operates in tandem with a numeric ticket quota system, often resulting in an unfair random tax on citizens who drive cars.

5) Chief Tarwater then resorts to a bizarre variation of the "no harm no foul" argument, noting that traffic offenders usually get shuffled off to traffic school anyway, as a practical matter, and thus there's is no real harm in the current system, aside from the fines and traffic school fees. The foregoing revenue items are of course the very problems which will be addressed by Rep. Hansen's bill. They are in fact a major part of the "cash cow" that citizens all across Utah have been loudly compaining about.

6) Finally, Chief Tarwater resorts to a final point: fixed numeric quotas are simply a necessary management tool. To that point we'll note that police department management already has a broad selection of tools to monitor employee performance, such as daily officer logs, GPI positioning devices and dash cams. Enough is enough, we say. Why should we lumpencitizens bear police department management problems on our backs?

Ticket quota advocates are fighting like badgers to preserve the ticket quota/justice court revenue stream. We wish Rep. Hansen the best of fortune with his bill in the upcoming legislative session.

There are also several other interesting stories in this morning's Std-Ex which we won't highlight at the moment. Our readers can expect a second main article today, as soon as the Std-Ex site is back up and running.

In the meantime the floor is open.

Infrastructure Improvements & Traffic Citation Quotas

Kicking Off a Friday Morning Open Topic Thread

In hindsight, we'll admit that we were probably remiss in our failure to provide a reminder of yesterday's city council "Water Horizons Workshop," which was held last night in the council chambers, wherein Emerald City citizens were invited to offer their comments on the results of the council's recently completed water, sewer and storm sewer rate study.

According to this morning's Ace Reporter Schwebke story, however, it appears that some "30 or so" Emerald City citizens nevertheless did manage to attend this event; and yet only a handful of these registered any objections.

Perhaps significantly, Godfreyite insider and Friend of Matt (FOM) G-Train Wilkerson, owner of nine Ogden rental properties, was among the small minority of attendees who were not happy with the council's proposed water infrastructure upgrades. Exhibiting the very worst self-serving qualities of an urban landlord, Ms. Wilkerson reportedly lodged this comment about the impending encroachment on her rental business bottom line:

"'That’s a big chunk of money if the landlord has to pay the bill,' she said."

Better, we suppose, that the citizens of Ogden (including Ms. Wilkerson's tenants) should continue to limp along with a hopelessly dilapidated water system (and stinky water), in order to protect Ms. Wilkerson's profit margin.

We'll add that we've occasionally criticized our city council, for their slavish acquiescence to Boss Godfrey's agenda, and their failure to enact programs and ordinances on their own initiative. It's in this connection that we congratulate our city council for their forceful and focused effort to bring these long overdue infrastructure upgrades to a stage of near fruition. They did this all on their own, without so much as an iota of help from our Precious Boss Godfrey.

And in view of Representative Hansen's newly revived Traffic Citation Quota Bill, which would ban numeric ticket quotas all over Utah, the naysayers are already lining up their opposition; and this morning we find two editorial page items from folks who believe it's quite alright to use traffic citations as a major source of municipal revenue:

First we'll highlight this morning's Op-ed piece by Roy City police chief Greg Whinham whose main argument revolves around the strange proposition that without numeric quotas, his officers will refuse to enforce the traffic laws because -- get this --"traffic enforcement is not fun." The undercurrent to this, of course, is that Chief Whinham believes the officers under his command are unprofessional; which is a helluva strange theme to be hearing from the man in charge of an urban Utah police agency, we think.

Secondly we were astounded by this Doug Stephens letter, in which the author suggests, with an apparently straight face, that Representative Hansen's legislative effort, which will be brought before the Utah state legislature for the second straight year, is some kind of defeated mayoral candidate revenge.

We're going to assume, unless and until we're proven wrong, that this particular Doug Stephens is NOT the Doug Stephens who is a presently-sitting council member on our Ogden City Council, for we KNOW that nobody on our council could possibly be so ill-informed.

That's it for now gentle readers. The floor is open. Feel free to discuss any of the above stories, or treat this thread as open topic.

Hansen to Fight Ticket Quotas in the 2008 Legislative Session - UPDATED

At least one elected official seems willing to look after the interests of the citizens of Ogden

It's the Thanksgiving holiday; and we originally planned to take the day off from blogging, and to use this day to recharge our blogmeister batteries. This afternoon, however, we've become aware of a Weber County Forum topical news story which is breaking on a couple of local broadcast news stations, ABC News Channel 4 and KUTV Channel 2:

Utah Legislator wants ticket quotas abolished
Legislator Says Traffic Tickets Are Municipal Cash Cows.

Yesiree, gentle readers, it's Utah House Legislative District 9 State Representative Neil Hansen who's again spearheading the legislative effort to abolish Utah municipalities' random citizen traffic tax again this year; and it appears (according to our own Capitol Hill sources) that Rep. Hansen will have bipartisan support for his bill during the upcoming 2008 legislative session.

Emerald City's existing ticket quota system has of course been a pet peeve of ours since at least as early as the summer of 2005. We believe Emerald City's ticket quota system is an insult to our citizens and police officers alike.

A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat this Thanksgiving day to Rep. Neil Hansen, for his continuing efforts to look after the interests of the lumpencitizens of Ogden.

Update 11/23/07 8:48 a.m. MT: Both the Standard-Examiner and Salt Lake Tribune feature this morning the full text of yesterday's broadcast media "ticket quota" story, which apparently originated with the AP Wire Service.

Interestingly, Chief Jon Greiner is quoted as saying that Rep. Hansen "doesn't have any proof of a quota system in Utah;" yet he also admits, paradoxically, that the "department uses the number of citations issued by an officer as part of an annual job review." Here's the documentary proof, from the OPD's own Performance Evaluation (PEP) sheet, gentle readers (see Citations Section, page three, bottom of left column), wherein the number of citations issued is one of more than a dozen criteria the department uses to evaluate performance of Ogden City Police Officers.

We think Hansen's bill will get some real traction in the legislature in the upcoming legislative session. Paul Rolley has been recently raising citizen awareness of the pervasive "ticket quota" problem with recent articles here and here. Not only that, but 2008 is a general election year, where legislators on both sides of the aisle will be posturing as "men and women of the people." What's more, your blogmeister has received reliable information that at least one State Legislative GOP heavyweight is interested on co-sponsoring Hansen's bill.

Smooth sailing? We don't know. But we do believe Representative Hansen's bill will get a lot more favorable attention this year than last.

Update 11/23/07 10:13 a.m. MT: Pursuant to the request of several of our gentle readers, we link here the full text of Rep. Hansen's HB-255, which passed in the House during last year's general legislative session, but narrowly failed in Senate committee, by a 2-2 vote. We have spoken with Representative Hansen about this, and he informs us that this year's bill will be identical in form, without textual revision.

Hansen Anti-Ticket Quota Bill Passes the House

House Rep. Neil Hansen's anti-Ticket quota HB-255 bill has passed the house and is now on its way to the senate for Senator Greiner and his other senate colleagues to now vote on it. This will be an "acid test" for the good homeboy freshman Senator, we think. The House vote on Rep. Hansen's bill was 38 yes and 35 no, BTW.

House Representative Hansen is the only state-level politician in Northern Utah regularly standing up for the citizens of Emerald City, so far.

If all goes well, Our hard-nosed blue-collar House District 9 rep will be "healing our wonderful city," a year or so from now as our Mayor.

How sweet that will be.

Contact your State Senate legislators now, and demand that Rep Neil Hansen's HB-255 anti ticket quota bill become law in Utah...

"Power to the People...right arm!"

Step One in the Banning of Evil Ticket Quotas

We offer a hearty Weber County Forum Tip o' the Hat to Utah House Representative Neil Hansen this morning, for the progress of his House Bill 255. This bill would, at long last, ban the evil practice of requiring Utah police officers to write a specific number of traffic tickets within a set period of time. It's high time we think, for the Utah legislature to jump on the bandwagon with this.

The Standard-Examiner reports that Rep. Hansen's bill cleared committee yesterday. The next step will be a vote on the house floor.

We urge our gentle readers to contact their House Representatives, and demand the banning of traffic citation quotas in this state. Not only do ticket quotas distract Emerald City's Finest from doing real police work, they provide an unfair and arbitrary foundation for municipal revenue. Ticket quotas also tend to promote the issuance of citations for frivlolous violations, deprive police officers of necessary discretion in close cases, and undermine citizen-police agency trust.

And make no mistake. A system of traffic citation quotas remains in force in Emerald City. Ask any street cop. A set number of traffic citations is part of every Emerald City police officer's monthly performance evaluation. This includes plainclothes detectives and officers on "special details."

Arguing in opposition to the bill yesterday before the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee were Boss Godfrey munchkins Mark "Justice Court Cash Cow" Johnson, and Assistant Chief Wayne Tarwater, the Std-Ex reports. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they testified (with completely straight faces, we suppose) that Emerald City standards for traffic citation issuance have nothing at all to do with raising municipal revenue, but are intended merely as a means of evaluationg officer performance.

Uh-huh, we say. Tell that whopper to the lady who emailed us last summer, complaining of being ticketed for a "rolling stop" violation, as she crept out of her quiet Emerald City neighborhood cul-de-sac at under 1 mile per hour.

The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton reports an interesting nuance regarding yesterday's house committee hearing:

"Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner, a new member of the Utah Senate, attended part of the committee hearing, but left early."

Sometimes it's possible to measure who is NOT in actual opposition to a bill by noting who didn't actually testify against it.

So let's all get on the stick and contact our state representatives. For those readers with extra time on their hands this morning, there's nothing stopping you from contacting every House representative on the above House roster. What the heck. We know our state legislators crave our citizen input, especially those House Reps in Utah's "outback."

The floor is open for anybody who'd like to throw in their own 2¢. Frivolous ticket horror stories, anyone? Is there anyone who reads this board who hasn't received a frivolous ticket? Anybody who feels they were victimized by Emerald City's ticket quota policy last summer, when some of Emerald City's Finest upped their attention to ticket writing, as a "demonstration" of a ticket quota policy in action?

Let us feel our readers' pain.

The floor is open.

Update 1/27/07 7:43 a.m. MT: We provide this link to a KUTV News clip of last night's TEEVEE broadcast on this topic. We think Rep. Hansen makes an exellent point: If they (opponents of the bill) don’t have quotas why is there a problem with the bill?

To Protect, To Serve, and To Tax -- Updated

By Matt Mossbarger

One of the main roles of government is protect its citizens from harm. The Nation has the military; municipalities have the police and fire departments. Somehow though, in Ogden, the role of government is not necessarily to protect as much as it is to “generate revenue”. The golf course is on the auction block because it does not meet the aforementioned criteria of generating revenue.

No one is talking about selling the police department though, because it can generate big bucks for the city. In the city’s Performance Evaluation Standards for police officers, definite quotas have been set. The City Council then pegged the merit raises for police officers to a 4 or greater on their performance evaluations. What do the merit evaluations have to do with city revenue? Tickets… and lots of them, and lots of money from those tickets.

Police officers must now write more tickets in order to get a raise in salary. In the pursuit of a meager 5% merit increase after years of no increase, police are now required to write a certain number of tickets according to their job title. Patrol and Master Patrol officers, whose main job it is to keep us safe from burglars, thieves, murderers, and drugs, are now required to write 5 citations a week with 3 to 5 of those citations being hazardous condition citations (drunk driving, reckless driving, etc.). Traffic and Master Traffic Officers are required to write 8 tickets per day. How much money is that?

The force has 13 Traffic Officers and 48 Patrol Officers. If everyone wants their raises, there must be a total of 240 tickets from the Patrol Officers and 624 from the Traffic Officers per week. Tickets come in all flavors and sizes, but the average ticket is estimated at $80. The city stands to gain big money from those tickets: $69,120 per week, $276,480 per month, or $3,317,760 per year.

The reason this became such an issue this year is that the city now has the methods and means for getting the whole pot of money. The city’s recent establishment of a Municipal Justice Court allows it to keep all the tickets and revenue in house. The state used to get much of the revenue, but the money can now remain solely with the city. The city now has all the pieces in place for a “revenue generating” machine.

This affects the average citizen of Ogden in many different ways. In fact, an outright tax on the citizens would have been more kind. The citizens, now fair game for tickets no matter how small the infraction, are facing higher insurance costs, loss of productivity while waiting for the officer to write the ticket, and increased crime. Increased crime? Oh yes. The police cannot patrol as much as they used to because they are too busy writing tickets for the city. The city is also only adding officers in the Traffic Division, even though we need more narcotics and patrol officers and detectives, who are overloaded with cases.

The police have been trying to combat the problem through making the citizenry aware of this change in policy. In exercising their First Amendment Rights and guarding their integrity, the officers are placing their jobs on the line. In one alleged incident, an officer’s wife was recently seen by Mayor Matthew Godfrey while she was getting out of a panel truck that had billboards protesting this change in policy. Allegedly, the Mayor then watched the officer’s wife as she met her husband, who was there to take her home. The Mayor then admitted following the off-duty officer and his wife, who were in a personal vehicle, for a few blocks, because “I thought I recognized the officer” as recorded on Fox 13. Two hours after being followed, the officer was met at his home by a lieutenant who relieved the officer of his badge, car, gun, and all other police equipment. The officer is now on “administrative leave” and, also allegedly, calls to the Mayor’s Office the next morning unveiled the fact that he had been “fired”. The story appeared on Fox 13 the next day.

The message is obvious. Don’t rock the boat; shut up and write tickets. The city of Ogden needs intelligent leadership, and we need to be safe in our streets. The citizens of this community should not put up with this silent tax from the city.

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This article, originally dated July, 29, 2006, appears as a guest editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner. The author has graciously granted Weber County Forum second publishing rights, for which courtesy we thank him. Links have also been added by your ever-humble blogmeister.

Update 8/8/06 3:43 p.m. MT: We are posting this short update to confirm rumors circulating in the below comments section. Yes -- Boss Godfrey held an impromptu press conference early this afternoon, outside his throne-room on the municipal building ninth floor.

The purpose of this press gathering -- to announce that the Matt Jones internal investigation, together with all other issues pertaining to the Vangate controversy, are now being handed off to Weber County Attorney Mark Decaria's office for an independent investigation.

Among "other" issues specifically mentioned during this press conference -- and to be investigated by Mr. Decaria's office -- all issues surrounding the possible misuse by Boss Godfrey and/or Chief Greiner of the BCI computer database.

According to Mayor Godfrey, Mr. Decaria's investigation will be broad in scope, and will look into possible legal and ethical violations.

That's the gist of it. There were no other significant new factual revelations. Boss Godfrey has apparently told his story, and he's sticking to it.

We are pressed for time this afternoon, but will review our notes, and may possibly update this addendum later this afternoon.

Boss Godfrey Plays the Game of "CYA"

Most regular Weber County Forum readers are at least vaguely aware of a 20-foot moving van that's been sighted at varous points in Emerald City, roaming the streets, or parked at strategic locations, such as the Lorin Farr Park Rodeo Stadium, or the vicinity of the downtown Municipal Bulding. The van is prominently outfitted on the back and side panels with large signs, intended to inform passing motorists of Mayor Godfrey's new traffic citation quota system, which has been discussed at some length in other articles on this site. The above cell-phone photo, submitted by one of our gentle readers, shows the back panel of the van. Similar messages are prominently displayed on the side panels.

According to a very reliable source, this van billboard project is the brainchild of members of the Ogden City Police Benefit Association, and has been funded by the donations of a hundred or so dedicated Ogden police officers. The object of the project is to inform the townsfolk of Ogden that Boss Godfrey has indeed put a price on the head of each and every citizen who navigates the city streets. There's no nice word to describe it. In his dogged obsession to turn every department in Ogden into a revenue-generating profit center, Godfrey has ruthlessly imposed a traffic citation quota system.

As is typical of Boss Godfrey, he tolerates no discussion or dissent on this issue, especially from city employees who normally cower under his imperial domination. Thus, he apparently donned his Sherlock Holmes hat last Thursday night, and conducted his own stake-out near near city hall. The van was obviously getting under his skin.

Around 7:15 p.m. he got lucky. At that time, the van, which had been parked at 26th and Harrison earlier in the day, was moved by one of the police officers' wives, and parked on the west side of Washington Boulevard (in front of the Municipal Building.) Super-sleuth Godfrey was right behind the van in his own vehicle, gesticulating and glaring at the officer's wife as she exited the van. Whether he spotted the van when it arrived downtown, or followed it from 26th & Harrison is unclear. (His residence is less than a block from the 26th & Harrison location.)

In a nutshell, the keen-eyed and incensed Boss Godfrey ultimately observed the policeman's spouse enter her own private vehicle, and subsequently depart from the Municipal Building area. Godfrey apparently "ran" the license number through the police vehicle ID system. (Whether the use of the computerized system in this instance and for this purpose is highly questionable.)

Finding that the private vehicle was registered to one of Ogden's Finest, Godfrey summarily ordered the watch commander to place officer Matt Jones on administrative leave within an hour or two. A lieutenant from the OPD arrived at Officer Jones' home by 9:00 p.m., to relieve Officer Jones of his weapon, badge, duty belt and Police vehicle. Formal "disciplinary action" is pending. There can be little doubt that this summary action, occuring in the dark of night, was precipitated solely by the previously-described event.

What's important to note is that all of these described activities, whether undertaken on the part of individual police officers, or by interested civilian citizens, have been done on off-duty time with the utilization of purely private resources. Elsewhere in America, public employees have the freedom to engage in off-duty political activity. This is even the law in Utah, per Utah Code Section 10-3-1108. Unfortunately, this appears NOT to be the condition in our bizarre little corner of the planet -- Matt Godfrey World -- where Boss Godfrey rules with an iron fist, by means of whimsical and paranoiac edicts conceived via metaphysical "visions" from his Exalted Throne on Nine.

In an intriguing aftermath to this pathetic above-described melodrama, Boss Godfrey has now apparently discussed this matter with his own legal staff, and has been belatedly informed that his actions taken on Thursday night were highly illegal. In his statement on Fox 13's news segment last night, he backtracks (with a completely straight face,) and NOW takes the position that the summary actions taken against the officer late Thursday night had "nothing at all to do" with the above described events. Whatever disciplinary action that's being taken against Officer Jones is directed at some other earlier misconduct committed by this officer, Boss Godfrey alleges. That's Godfrey's story, at least. Meanwhile, Boss Godfrey and his slavish minions rifle through Officer Jones's personnel file, hoping to dredge up something that will "stick." In military circles it's called "Covering Your Ass."

We've been "sitting" on this story since around 10:00 Thursday night, assembling facts and interviewing people with direct knowledge of this event, and were not yet quite ready to publish an article on this topic. Inasmuch as Fox 13 News "broke" this storly last night though, thus stimulating some discussion in the previous comments section, we are posting an article here, in order to entertain a "dedicated thread" on this topic.

We will update this article as the facts develop. Meanwhile, have at it folks. Please feel free to offer your comments and any additional information to which you may be privy.

Update 7/29/06 12:29 p.m. MT: We have just received confirmation from a highly-reliable source. Boss Godfrey's request for vehicle information was processed directly through police dispatch. Chief Greiner's voice is reportedly identifiable on the tape. This would tend to negate Boss Godfrey's Fox 13 News statement that he actually recognized Officer Jones, and would tend to support the logical inference that Godfrey may have needed to improperly utilize the vehicle identification system, (for purely political purposes) in order to identify Officer Jones's private vehicle. The plot sickens.

Update 7/31/06 7:35 a.m. MT: The Std-Ex finally gets around to reporting on this story, and the story headline gets it right, at least: Ogden officer under investigation; wife accused of protesting ticket policies. Reporter Janae Francis's Sunday evening phone interview with our Mayor apparently left Boss Godfrey on the verge of stammering.

Drumming Up Business for Ogden's New Justice Court

By Rudizink

It's been nearly a year since we warned about Boss Godfrey's new scheme to generate massive city revenue by wringing-out "fines" from Ogden citizens, through Boss Godfrey's new Ogden Justice Court. "The new court will be a cash cow", neoCon City Administrator Mark Johnson gleefully exclaimed, during a Salt Lake Tribune interview last year.

Well, the newly-remodeled court is almost ready for business, as the Standard-Examiner reported last week. All that that's needed now is a steady stream of hapless citizens to be processed through the court turnstiles, unceremoniously relieved of their cash, and released out the back door, with a kick in the butt and a cheery "Thanks for doing business with Ogden City... do come back again!"

And the other necessary component of this grand revenue-raising scheme is also near-complete. In order to generate the projected massive revenue, Boss Godfrey has concocted a truly evil scheme to keep the court's massive numbers of court "customers" coming back. He's already doubled the number of "traffic officers," as this morning's Troy Arrowsmith guest editorial reports, and instituted a salary-tied citation quota system. And he intends to increase the citation quotas even more in the future. Business will truly be booming in the new Ogden Justice Court, we think.

OPBA president Arrowsmith cuts to the chase and identifies the core problem, in a few short paragraphs:

In 2005, Ogden officers had to write in excess of 20,000 citations just to get their wages to feed their family. This means that every man, woman and child who are Ogden citizens will receive a citation, at a minimum, every few years.

Are your elected city officials representing your views on this? Is this fair to you? Why are they trying to raise funds in such an underhanded way? Your elected officials are using the police department as a revenue generating machine instead of the job we were sworn to do: public safety.

And Officer Arrowsmith doesn't slow down or mince words in his concluding paragraph:

Are your elected officials truly serving you by forcing officers to watch a stop sign in hopes that they reach their ticket quota and get a raise? We feel that as police officers we swore an oath to protect and serve the citizens of Ogden. We feel that this not only means that we protect you against criminals, but in rare occasions such as this, we must protect you against your elected officials. We need your help, and ask that you call Mayor Godfrey and your City Council members and let them know that you support your police officers in this endeavor. [Emphasis added.]

And what say our gentle readers about all this? Will we sit back and dawdle, while Ogden's Finest are morphed by Boss Godfrey into a motley pack of collection agents with badges? Will we tolerate our great City's continued path toward having the lowest-paid police force in the west? Sending your email protests to the Ogden City Council would be a good start, for those gentle readers who don't relish these prospects. And showing up to offer your support for our police officers at tonight's council meeting (where OPBA representatives will again petition the council for a re-visit of the salary issue) wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Comments, anyone?

What are our gentle readers thoughts on this issue?