MONTREAL - Montreal's police department is finally confirming what many have long suspected: officers have quotas about the number of tickets they must hand out each month.
Chief Inspector Stephane Lemieux will not say exactly how many tickets officers are required to give out.
Lemieux said that when the quota goes up, the number of deaths on roads in and around Montreal goes down.
"We have found a certain number of annual tickets which keeps road deaths to 30-35 people each year, which is excellent for a large city like [Montreal]," said Lemieux.
For several years the Police Brotherhood has said that officers have quotas, and that those quotas are periodically increased.
In the past, union chief Yves Francoeur has said that quotas are increased to raise more money for the city.
Lemieux denied that, saying that the police force does not issue tickets to fill city coffers.
"We don't want to hand out so many tickets that we become a bank machine," said Lemieux.
City of Montreal spokesman Claude Trudel agreed, saying the police are simply doing their jobs.
"If your job is to give tickets, you have to give them," he said. "It's as simple as that."
