Ohio lawmakers push to ban police quotas across the state

A bill at the Ohio Statehouse aims to make it illegal for any law enforcement agency to impose quotas for traffic tickets or arrests.

Supporters of House Bill 131 say while the practice is rare, it still exists in some parts of the state and they believe it damages public trust and officer integrity.

"In the few and far places that it does exist throughout Ohio, it has been proven nothing but detrimental," said T.J. Assion, a sergeant with the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office and Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police, "It ruins the trust between citizens and the police. And you have to have that kind of relationship between law enforcement and the community in order to better serve the community."

The bill would prohibit any law enforcement agency in Ohio from setting required numbers of stops, citations or arrests.

If the bill passes, officers who believe quotas are in use would be allowed to file an anonymous complaint with the Ohio Attorney General's Office, which could investigate and issue a cease-and-desist letter.

Fraternal Order of Police Director of Governmental Affairs Michael Weinman said the organization strongly supports the bill.

"We support the bill because we feel it's unjust. It's unfair to set these ticket quotas," Weinman said, "What you're doing is taking your focus off of public safety, and you're putting it on either revenue generation or some sort of performance metric that you know that these supervisors want to see."

Weinman emphasized that most departments across Ohio do not use quotas and that the bill is about sending a clear message and maintaining trust.

"If you've got a quota, then that's what you're thinking about when you're out there patrolling the streets, 'I've got to meet this quota,' so it takes away the officer's discretion, and it really hurts the trust between the officers and the public that he serves," Weinman said. "That's really why we want to see these go away, and we want to emphasize to folks that this is very rare."

Law enforcement agencies in the Valley, including both the Mahoning and Trumbull County Sheriff's offices, say they do not use quotas and are against the idea of requiring officers to meet specific citation or arrest numbers.

"If you're going to have quotas in place, then you take away that officer's discretion, and you force that fine and those costs on the citizens, when otherwise a warning would serve the exact same purpose," Assion said, "I've met with officers from other parts of Ohio where I've experienced where this exists, and they sometimes fear for their career because they're not writing enough traffic tickets. They're not making enough arrests."

Former Campbell Police Chief and current Youngstown Councilman Pat Kelly also supports the bill.

"I'm against quotas. I've never policed by quotas, and I don't expect any of my people to police by quotas," Kelly said, "Quotas, to me, are money grabs, hands down. Hands down. Just money grabs, and I just think you need to treat people more fairly, just not stop them to stop them, because you need to get numbers."

Weinman said the bill's goal is to restore clarity and trust in law enforcement by ensuring no department uses quotas in the future.

"When we stop someone, we won't want them questioning, 'am I being stopped because this is quota,' or was I actually doing something unsafe?" he said, "The whole purpose of traffic enforcement is to modify behavior. We don't want you going 103 miles an hour through a school zone."

Assion said the passing of this legislation would send a clear message.

"It lets the public know and it reaffirms with the public that traffic citations and arrests are all about public safety and not about numbers," he said. 

Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene said, "On behalf of myself and all of my employees, we fully support the bill to end quotas for arrests and traffic tickets. In my 30-plus-year career with the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office, we have never had policies, or even verbal directives, to implement quotas. In my tenure as Sheriff, I have never ordered or enforced any type of quotas. Quotas involving traffic tickets and arrests undermine public safety, create unnecessary law enforcement encounters which, in turn, diminishes the trust between my Deputies and our community we serve." 

House Bill 131 passed in the House and is now being considered in the Senate.

If passed, Ohio would join at least 25 other states, including Pennsylvania, that have already banned police quotas.