The Sacramento Bee: Court case hinges on claim of illegal CHP ticket quotas

Transportation
By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
dwalsh@sacbee.com
June 15, 2015

• Evidence in a Sacramento court case suggests officers are encouraged to increase traffic stops
• Judge says CHP ‘should be ashamed’ of evidence presented
• California Highway Patrol flatly denies quotas exist

For years, the California Highway Patrol has consistently denied that its officers are subject to a quota for the number of traffic tickets they write each month.

The practice is illegal under state law, and agencies that have been found to use a quota system have paid millions of dollars in damages and faced lawsuits filed as recently as April.

Despite that, a veteran CHP officer testified in Sacramento this month that he was subjected to monthly admonishments from his superiors to boost his “enforcement contacts” with motorists to at least 100 a month, and that such performance evaluations went on for years.

The testimony by CHP motorcycle Officer Jay Brame, who is being sued along with another officer and the CHP in a case now playing out in federal court in Sacramento, was bolstered by the introduction of performance reviews urging him to pull over more motorists.

“You have averaged five enforcement contacts per day for the first 15 days of the month, this is well below the shift average and not acceptable for a (motorcycle),” one evaluation introduced as evidence stated. “You will need to pick up your enforcement activity the second half of the month and use the (motorcycle) for what it is intended to be used for.”

The direct language in the documents surprised even the judge presiding at the trial.

“That is terrible,” U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb said. “I would think that the CHP should be ashamed of that document.”

“It’s a quota,” said Michael Haddad, one of two Oakland attorneys representing Harrison Orr, a Citrus Heights man suing the agency for false arrest. Haddad’s partner, Julia Sherwin, repeated that claim Monday in closing arguments to the jury.

“You can see from the evaluations that the CHP certainly has a quota,” Sherwin said. “The quota is 100 a month, even if they don’t encounter 100 people who are doing something wrong.”

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