Sen. Nathan Dahm files legislation prohibiting traffic citation quotas

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, has filed legislation prohibiting law enforcement entities from enacting policies that require officers, justices or judges to meet traffic citation quotas.

“It’s no secret that some jurisdictions may emphasize writing tickets at different times to try and generate more revenue,” Dahm said. “Our peace officers shouldn’t be pushed by their employers to focus on writing extra tickets or collecting extra revenue from citations.”

Senate Bill 1264 would prohibit any political subdivision or agency of the state to maintain, require or suggest policies that employee evaluations, promotions, compensation or discipline may be based on the issuance of a specified number of traffic citations by law enforcement officers, or the amount of revenue a court justice or judge collects from these citations.

The bill does not prohibit municipalities from obtaining budgetary information from the courts, including estimates of court collections in a budget year.

“Prohibiting quotas will allow our law enforcement officers to better serve our communities by keeping their focus on protecting our citizens, not bolstering revenue.” Dahm said.