COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A recently introduced bill would prohibit the use of arrest and citation quotas for law enforcement agencies in Ohio.

A quota, as pertaining to House Bill 333, refers to the mandate of a certain number of arrests or citations that a law enforcement officer must meet in a specific time period. 

The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) and Kevin Miller (R-Newark), would prohibit law enforcement officials and agencies from formally or informally using a quota system to “evaluate, promote, compensate, transfer or discipline a local or state police officer.” This includes offering a financial reward or any other benefit to an officer determined by their quota. 

Miller, who served with the Ohio State Highway Patrol for over 20 years, said quotas can limit the amount of discretion used by officers.

“I just don’t believe that our law enforcement officers should be used to be generating revenue,” Miller said. “I certainly understand that as a result of writing citations there’s revenue generated, but that shouldn’t be the primary reason officers are out enforcing laws.”

According to Sweeney, the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association reached out to her with the idea. 

“We hear from law enforcement that it (quotas) takes them out of their neighborhoods, it takes them out of doing their most important job and that is to protect public safety,” Sweeney said. “And if there is an arbitrary quota that says ‘you have to write 20 traffic tickets’ and they are then either not able to fully do their due diligence on their other work or if there’s a call, that’s really concerning.”

Chief legal council for the OPBA, Daniel Leffler, cited building trust with the public as a major reason for pushing for the bill.

“The public at the end of every month says ‘Oh, you know, they gave me a ticket just because they’re trying to meet their quota’ or whatever, so we think this would help with community relations and building trust between law enforcement and the community at large,” Leffler said.

Sweeney said a broad coalition of people who may not always see eye to eye have shown support for House Bill 333.

“So anytime you can have someone not unnecessarily interact with the criminal justice system, for doing a minor offense, I think is a positive thing, and that’s why we’ve seen this coalition of people that support criminal justice reform, but you know, this is also something that law enforcement themselves want,” Sweeney said.

From the OPBA’s experience, a large number of negative interactions between law enforcement and the public, including officer-involved shootings, center around domestic violence and traffic issues, Leffler said. 

The bill specifies that it does not prohibit a law enforcement official or agency from collecting or analyzing data regarding the number of arrests made or citations issued in order to ensure that an entity “does not violate an applicable legal obligation of the officer or officers.”

Sweeney said when discussing the bill, one concern that was brought to her was law enforcement’s ability to collect data in order to receive grants. These specifications in the bill make sure looking at data trends and what law enforcement is spending their time on holistically is permitted. 

“Part of [receiving grants is] showing that whatever equipment that they got, helped slow down traffic or what have you,” Sweeney said. “So [the bill permits] the ability to still collect data, so we weren’t unnecessarily prohibiting a local community to meet requirements to get federal dollars.”

To make sure law enforcement agencies aren’t enforcing quotas, the bill states that the attorney general would establish an anonymous form where police officers could report the use of quota systems. The claims would be investigated within a year of receiving the report. If the attorney general concludes that the law enforcement official or agency uses quotas, the attorney general would then order the officer(s) to “cease and desist” from using quotas. 

House Bill 333 will receive additional hearings in the homeland security committee open for public testimony. More information can be found here.