DAMASCUS, Ark. — A small town of fewer than 400 people on Highway 65 has been rumored among motorists to be a speed trap for years. Now, insiders are speaking out. Officers say they’re expected to meet a quota for tickets, and if they fail to bring in the revenues they’re fired.
Contacts, contacts, contacts
“Police officer that stops to rob is pathetic,” Bud McMunn said as he talked to us about his thoughts of operating a speed trap for revenues.
McMunn first brought his concerns to Fox16 Investigates back in April. He provided a memo he claimed he was given by the Damascus Police Chief after inquiring about a job. The chief’s memo, McMunn said, spelled out what Damascus police were doing.
Fox16 Investigates submitted a Freedom of Information request to the city attorney and the city clerk for a copy of the memo. No one would provide us with an email for the police chief, nor would anyone tell us how to refer an FOIA directly to the police department. Our Freedom of Information request went unfulfilled.
But a former employee provided a copy of that memo the chief had signed and the city clerk had notarized. It notes, among other things, that an officer must make seven contacts per shift. Officers are told their primary job is to work traffic, because they have low call volume. And it also explains they should write unsafe driving ordinances on different tickets, because those are not reported to the state.
We detailed how the unsafe driving ordinance is used in Damascus here.
“That’s the way I took it with contacts he wanted X number of citations written,” McMunn said. “When I saw that a police officer must make 7 contacts per shift – that was another drawback that’s telling me it’s a quota.”
It’s All About the Money
But according to a recent Damascus employee, who asked not to be identified due to fear of retaliation, that’s exactly what’s happening.
“It’s a money-driven, greed driven department. And the town is behind them 100 percent,” he said. “All the way up to the mayor and city officials.”
Fox16 Investigates was provided an audio recording of a department-wide meeting insiders tell us Police Chief Rick Perry held just four days after the local prosecutor announced he was requesting an Arkansas State Police investigation into whether the department was operating a speed trap.
According to Arkansas law, a department is operating a speed trap when speeding citations or citations for violations of local ordinances comprises 30 percent or more of the previous year’s expenditures for a city. Or the city could write more than half of its speeding tickets on a state highway in town for under 10 mph over the speed limit. Either is a violation.
“I worked all last week, and I made contacts all week,” Perry can be heard telling the officers. He chides them for contacts being down.
“You don’t have to write them a [speeding] ticket. Find something else to stop them on. A lot of times, that’s how I did it.”
Perry goes on, “It’s very crucial. ‘Cause we all know how we survive here.”
Targeting Out-of-Towners
According to our sources, other officers we spoke with, and a sample of dozens of speeding citations: tickets to locals are virtually non-existent. Others are the target.
“Anybody else is fair game,” the former officer told Fox16 Investigates. Especially out-of-towners. They’ve never been through here before.”
According to the former employee, officers are not sitting to tag drivers near the main drag but wait right at where the speed limit plummets. It’s just a tenth of a mile between the sign that warns a speed zone is ahead and where it actually drops from 60 miles per hour to 45.
“They set up on the hill,” the former officer said. “Probably a quarter of a mile off the 45 mph sign. A quarter of a mile is not much when you run 60 miles an hour, you’re there in a heartbeat. When you’ve got thousands of cars coming through a day — that generates a lot of revenue.”
According to financial statements from the city, year after year the biggest chunk of money from these tickets—hundreds of thousands of dollars—is transferred right back into the police department. Some funds are spread out to help shore up the city budget.
There’s a direct incentive, though, if the police department wants to exist it has to write tickets to do so?” this reporter asked the employee.
“Exactly. I know firsthand that if you don’t write citations, then they let you go,” the officer said.
“This isn’t sales. It’s law enforcement”
When prosecutor Cody Hiland first announced he was requesting an ASP investigation into Damascus, Fox16 Investigates asked him, in general, about quotas for a police force. He had no knowledge of the memo.
That’s not how you police,” he said. “You police based on something happening and reacting to that.”
“So, it’s not ‘I have to stop 7 people or make contact with 7 people’ or things like that, however it’s phrased?” this reporter asked.
“It’s about individual actions by people that violate the law and law enforcement responding,” Hland said. “It’s not about a predetermined quota as to what needs to happen this is not sales – it’s law enforcement.”
According to those we spoke with, there is absolutely zero discretion officers feel they can employ in the Damascus PD.
There have been tickets I’ve written. Tickets other officers have written in this town, they weren’t happy with. They didn’t want to really do it, but they had to. Write ‘em or you don’t have a job,” the officer said.
The Business of Law Enforcement
In the recording, the chief expresses that it is an officer’s choice to issue a citation and alludes to concerns of public safety.
“Officers are reminded I would never tell you to write a citation or not write a citation,” you hear Perry say in the recording. “If you pull somebody over, it’s up to whether you give a citation or not.”
But in nearly the next breath he adds responds to an officer’s question, clarifying they must make seven contacts.
“Yeah, 7 contacts. If our revenue’s not there, you know. You know what comes after that,” Perry said.
“Everything else comes second. The citizens, the town, the patrolling of the town. They could care less if you do that,” our source told Fox16 Investigates.
Officers we spoke with, including our source on camera, didn’t feel like they were the good guys there for public safety.
“We’re supposed to be here to serve and protect, and that’s not what we’re doing. We’re here to make money. It’s a business. It’s what it is. It’s about as far from being a police officer and doing our jobs as it can get,” the officer said.
We asked to talk to Chief Perry to get an explanation for the recording and the memo. We were told he was out of the office, despite his police cruiser being parked outside. We checked back hours later after leaving a phone number for him to call. He still wasn’t in. He hasn’t returned our call. We requested a comment last Thursday.
While Chief Perry hasn’t responded to our requests for comment, the audio recording sends a clear message, according to officers we spoke with.
“If we have to have 7 contacts, we want to know what initiates it? What’s a contact?” one officer can be heard asking.
“It’s traffic contacts, in my opinion,” Perry can be heard responding.
“If you don’t make those contacts if you don’t write those citations – he will find someone who will,” our source told us.
In the Name of Dollars and Cents
It remains to be seen if this department of six officers, for a town of less than four hundred, can continue to ticket the unsuspecting masses like McMunn alleged.
“That’s what I call it – stop to rob,” McMunn said. “Using your authority to stop the people and rob them.”
Because without any explanation from city officials, it seems this department polices under the guise of protecting to serve but in the name of dollars and cents.
Fox16 Investigates did reach out to the mayor of Damascus as well. He hasn’t returned our calls, either.
The full meeting with the officers was roughly half an hour long, and dealt with issues of also not improperly charging or operating body and dash cams, cleaning out the cars that officer’s use and fueling up cars.
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