Speeding ticket scandal: the internal police memo

A highway police unit was sent out with orders to "get our ticket count up" in what makes a mockery of Government assurances that motorists are not targeted in a quota system.

A June 21 job sheet for police officers in the Central North Island area tells officers to set up road blocks so they can target high volumes of traffic to finish "top group" in their district before the end of the financial year.

Although police have argued for years that motorists were not subject to a quota, the memo was last night seized upon by opposition politicians to attack the Government's credibility.

Superintendent Mark Lammas, the boss of the unnamed officer who wrote the memo, said there was no quota but that officers did have "productivity targets" to meet.

"We do measure productivity by group and by individual. I have guidelines to productivity."

National's law and order spokesman Simon Power said: "The Government have been telling the public targets do not exist, that this is not a revenue-gathering exercise - but that is obviously not the case."

Act leader Rodney Hide said it made the police look like "just another branch of Inland Revenue". "This just proves what [Prime Minister] Helen Clark and the police have strenuously denied for years - that highway patrols are about government revenue gathering, rather than safer roads."

Police Minister Annette King told the Herald on Sunday she would seek assurances from the Commissioner of Police, Howard Broad, tomorrow that police were not operating a quota system. "I'm not happy with it if they are giving tickets to satisfy some internal quota."

It is the second case in a month of a memo urging police to issue tickets. In Marlborough, the acting area commander told officers they had to issue two tickets a shift.

Mrs King said the two instances were the first times she had ever heard of anything resembling a quota system. "I don't think it's endemic."

She said each policing district was responsible for the way it targeted crime and traffic enforcement.

"There is not a government instruction or policy. There is no quota system from the Government. I don't believe we need a quota system. The measure for me is a reduction in deaths, injuries and accidents."

She also attempted to put to rest accusations that police engage in "revenue collecting". "I've got no interest in the revenue. It's peanuts next to the cost of death, suffering and rehabilitation. It's peanuts."

In 2004 more than 395,000 speeding tickets were issued by officers, up from 137,000 in 2000. Police collected $46.5 million from these fines last year.

Superintendent Lammas said the "productivity" guidelines were based on knowing statistically how many people were likely to break the law and the expectation of what an efficient police officer should be achieving.

"I would expect they would issue one ticket an hour."

He conceded the statistics comparing groups of officers "may well" be available to police staff. But he said it should not be a source of competition. "We're about outcomes and how we get good road safety outcomes."

Mr Lammas said the officer who wrote the "tasking sheet" would be spoken to. He said the choice of words was "enthusiastic, probably well-meaning but largely ignorant of road policing", and the instruction was "daft".

He also said he intended hunting out the individual who had leaked the "tasking sheet". He said "every organisation hates to have someone... who does that".

Automobile Association general manager Mike Noon said the AA had always accepted assurances from police that there were no quotas. The AA was supportive of police road policing efforts, including targeting problems on the roads. "We are not supportive of ticketing for the sake of ticketing. If that was the case we would be concerned."

Quota, what quota?

October 17, 2005
Northland police community safety officer Bridget Rickard:

"We do not have a quota, we do however have a job to do and that is to protect life and property. If that means writing out tickets, so be it."

January 22, 2005
Inspector John Kelly, of police national headquarters, in response to claims that a trebling of speeding ticket numbers was "revenue gathering":

"It's frustrating. This has got absolutely nothing to do with revenue gathering."

July 23, 2003
Police Minister George Hawkins, in response to a question from Act MP Muriel Newman as to whether police have a national policy on traffic ticket quotas:

"No. However, police do set performance standards to enforce the law."

May 17, 2003
Inspector John Kelly, acting national policing manager, after the goal for the number of speeding tickets to be issued by police rises:

"Issuing more tickets is about strong enforcement, which is proven to save lives on the road. The money collected is a by-product of what we're doing."

March 10, 2003
Tasman road policing manager Inspector Hugh Flower:

"The fixation on speed and allegations of revenue gathering are erroneous and unhelpful when all the police are doing is endeavouring to reduce the road toll and associated road trauma that has far-reaching consequences for the community each time a traffic crash occurs."

July 26, 2005
Nelson Bays area commander Inspector Brian McGurk:

"Our enforcement strategies and tactics have absolutely nothing to do with so-called revenue gathering, but have everything to do with preventing deaths and injuries."