An Atlanta police officer reprimanded for not making one arrest during a week in a crime-ridden area is accusing the Police Department of using a quota system to beef up arrest numbers, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Department officials deny the charge. Officer Andrew Cerul filed a grievance with the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers in late March after he was transferred from day watch to evening watch.
Jon Calloway, Cerul’s union representative, said that officials “didn’t deny that the quota system existed. They said it was reasonable to expect an officer to make an arrest. I would hate to be the person on the last day who gets stopped by an officer needing an arrest.” Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said, “One man’s standard is another man’s quota. If your standard is that an individual has to make an arrest, that is a quota. You put an officer in a position where he or she might be inclined to cite people that he would not necessity cite.” Pasco said the 330,000-member FOP opposes a quota system as “unfair to the citizens.”
Link: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/atlanta/0405/11policequota.html