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DUI
Does the Metro Nashville Police Department Have DUI Quotas
Posted by: Brent Horst
December 12, 2007
Ask any cop on the witness stand about whether they have a certain number of DUI arrests which they are required to make or if they have a quota and they will deny any such thing.
However, we now have a public statement by the Sergeant of Nashville Police Department's Traffic Division which seems to admit otherwise. In a statement to the Nashville City Paper explaining Nashville's recent 100% increase in DUI arrests Sgt Keeter stated: we put a lot of pressure on the officers to work, and to look for the impaired drivers - and if theyre not doing that for us . . . there's other officers that want to come work and want to find the drunk drivers. For the entire story see http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=58210
So why is having quotas bad in my opinion. It forces the officer to have concerns other than whether the person is in fact guilty of DUI. If an officer is worried about keeping his job because he has not found any drunk drivers that week and on his last shift for the week he pulls me over after I have had two jack and cokes which will not put me over the limit and will not impair me but will give me an odor of alcohol on my breath, which is all the cop needs to make his arrest stick, I am going to jail. As long as he gets credit for his arrest what does he care if I win in court? In the meantime I suffer the humiliation of the arrest, booking, sitting in a jail cell, and going through the entire court process.
At least however we now have the Sergeant on record admitting that the officers are pressured to make arrests and I can guarantee that he will be confronted in Court about this statement.
