NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — New emails from a former North Little Rock Officer paints a clearer picture of what would happen when a patrolman didn’t make enough traffic stops.
A supervisor last year told his officers in writing that the bottom two performers would drive a “pool car” of his choosing for a month.
Pool car, meaning a clunker.
We spoke to a retired officer who confirmed the threats.
“I could lose my take home vehicle, lose my weekends off or days off that I had and even be moved to a different shift,” he said.
But this other officer lived it as he patrolled Rose City.
He wrote out his concerns in his resignation letter to Chief Mike Davis.
He says in the letter, “In the last year however, supervisors began enforcing a strict quota of traffic stops, calling it a measure of our productivity. When I didn’t meet that number, I was punished.”
He says punishment included getting his radar gun taken away in July 2018.
Two weeks later he was given two days notice to switch shifts and patrol zones.
In a statement Chief Davis said “traffic stops are just a part of what we do and these stops sometimes lead to arrest, confiscation of illegal weapons, missing runaways and much more.”
“I can assure you that no quota is in place and never will be,” Chief Davis said in a statement.
He did not comment on alleged punishment.
What this officer endured though was enough for him to end his tenure with the force, saying in the letter, “I feel the command staff is too focused on old policing styles that do not serve a community as it should be served.”
Read previous reports on quota concerns and the instructions to officers to delete all of their emails at these links.
