12/14/2006
Canada: Toronto Must Halt Time Off Ticket QuotaToronto, Canada Police ordered to stop giving officers time off for writing twenty five traffic tickets.

A tribunal judge yesterday ordered Toronto, Canada Police to stop its "25 and home" ticket quota that allowed officers to go home early if, in a single shift, they could write 25 traffic tickets.
"I find it is an affront to the public interest and cannot be condoned as legitimate law enforcement behaviour, where quotas and personal benefit influence the day," Police Services Act tribunal judge, Superintendent Neale Tweedy wrote in his ruling, as quoted in the Toronto Sun. "It is ... a sad example of unacceptable conduct ... undermining discipline, undermining unit cohesiveness and contributing to a compromised management and work environment."
Constables David Deviney -- a 30-year veteran -- and Mark Von Kalckreuth were charged with failure to obey orders after they showed "extreme resistance" to the ticket quota.
"There were several strained discussions between the two men about what Deviney believed to be the unseemliness of the practice and the effect on junior officers," Tweedy wrote.
Tweedy acquitted Deviney and Kalckreuth and ordered an end to "25 and home."