Will New Bipartisan Bill Ban Ticket Quotas for Ohio Police Officers?

COLUMBUS, OH— If you’ve ever suspected that ticket quotas play a role in traffic stops, you’re not alone.

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers want to ban the practice in Ohio.

“Our law enforcement men and women shouldn’t be revenue generators,” said state Rep. Kevin Miller, a Newark Republican. “They don’t want to have some arbitrary number placed upon them that says you have to write X amount of citations.“

Quotas create pressure, in his opinion as a former trooper for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, “to write something that you might normally not write. Maybe it would have been a warning.”

That’s why he’s introducing a bill with Westlake Democrat Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney on Wednesday to ban police departments from using quotas of arrests or citations for promotions, transfers or discipline.

It would also create a form to anonymously report quotas to the Ohio Attorney General, whose team would investigate and issue cease and desist orders when necessary.

Miller and Sweeney’s bill doesn’t have a number yet, but it isn’t a new idea. The two tried to pass a quota ban in the last General Assembly. The bill never made it out of committee.

“Honestly, we ran out of time,” Miller said.

That version had support from the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and Ohio’s Fraternal Order of Police.

“Quotas put unnecessary pressure on officers to ignore their discretion and act as a wedge between them and their communities,” FOP Government Affairs Director Mike Weinman told lawmakers in 2024.

Miller expects the FOP and others to lineup behind the legislation again. He’s also expecting pushback from police chiefs who worry they won’t be able to use officer statistics in their evaluations.

The Central Ohio Chiefs Association opposed earlier versions of this bill for that reason, saying the language was too broad. In testimony on the prior bill, the association acknowledged problems with quotas but said a ban “undermines the expertise and judgment of police executives—professionals with decades of law enforcement experience."

“They’re still required to do their job,” Miller said. “We’ve got provisions in the bill that allows you to compare officers in a work group.”

Miller pointed out that Highway Patrol troopers have had a ban on quotas negotiated into their union contract for years.

One of the Highway Patrol’s primary duties is road safety, he added, and they operate “just fine” without quotas. “Is this really that big of an issue for other agencies?”

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