CHICAGO (CN) - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday signed a bill that immediately bans police ticket quotas.
The law applies to all local, county and state police departments. It states that municipalities and police departments cannot require officers to issue a certain number of citations in a certain period of time, and that the amount of tickets written by officers cannot be used as part of their evaluations.
"Law enforcement officers should have discretion on when and where to issue traffic citations and not be forced to ticket motorists to satisfy a quota system," Quinn said in a statement.
The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill and state Rep. Jay Hoffman of Swansea, both Democrats.
"Arbitrary quotas on the number of tickets that have to be issued by police officers undermines the public trust in the police departments' priorities," Hoffman told The Associated Press. "By eliminating these quotas, we can restore that trust and ensure that police officers are free to do their job protecting the public."
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