WATCH: Lawsuit Claims Video is Evidence of a “Quota System” for DUI Arrests

November 28th, 2017

Awake Goy

The video taken by a dashboard camera shows two Pennsylvania State Police troopers discussing which one of them should get credit for arresting a man on suspicion of driving under the influence because they both need their “20 for the month,” is evidence of a “quota system” for DUI arrests, a federal civil rights lawsuit claims.

Without performing roadside sobriety tests to establish probable cause in a May 2015 arrest in the parking lot of a bar near Lehighton, troopers speculated whether the suspect sitting in the back of a cruiser was “DUI,” the suit alleges.

One trooper asked another, “You mind if I take this?” adding, “I need my 20 for the month,” the video shows.

“I need mine too, but I’ll let you have him,” the other trooper replied, according to the video.

The lawsuit filed this month also alleges that the arresting trooper and other officers falsely reported drunken-driving violations in the past and that state police supervisors were deliberately indifferent to the practice and condoned and encouraged it by setting quotas for filing such cases.

The trooper who made the 2015 arrest later falsified court documents, stating he performed field sobriety tests that the motorist failed, when no tests were given, the lawsuit alleges. The video shows the driver, Noah Reed of Jacksonville, Fla., being placed in one police car in handcuffs and later transferred to another without being given the tests described in the court documents.

“The law doesn’t allow quota systems for a very good reason,” said attorney Joshua Karoly of Allentown, who is representing Reed. “It puts a personal motive into law enforcement and that’s not good for anyone.”

Ticket quotas for Pennsylvania law enforcement officers have been banned by state law since 1981.

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