Elk Grove cops on ticket quota, Leary the populist queries

At the conclusion of last night’s city council meeting, Mike Leary took a queer shot at the Elk Grove Police Dept.

Leary basically threw out hearsay that the EGPD had a quota for issuing traffic tickets.

“It was brought to my attention that one of the senior staff from the police department went to a briefing and said that revenue from our traffic citations were down considerably from last year, and he suggested they write more citations from the community,” Leary said. “I hope we don’t have quotas.”

EGPD chief Robert Simmons said the department does no such thing.

“Cleary there are no quotas in the police department,” Simmons said in response.

While many in the general public have long suspected that cops universally operate on a sort of quota system, it is ironic that Leary brought up the topic. As a 25-year law enforcement veteran, Leary is an unlikely candidate to cross the fraternity of The Thin Blue Line.

So just why did Leary bring this up?

After shaking the magic 8-ball, the answer says...politics.

Perhaps Leary is posturing so come this fall he can claim to be looking out for the interest of Elk Grove voters. Who after all, especially those arrested for driving while black, haven’t thought they were unfairly targeted by some over-zealous traffic cop.

So why not just blast the out-going police chief. An easy target if there ever was one.

Could Leary really be concerned about the perception problem the department and city would have if such a system actually existed? Could he be interested in projecting a better image for the EGPD with the voting public?

Maybe Leary is being sincere – but now he needs to prove it.