The trial of the century ended when a San Bernardino County jury determined that Victorville deputies were not caught up in a quota scheme.

In the two-year-old lawsuit, three current and former sheriff’s deputies claimed, inter alia, that if motorcycle officers failed to write 200 tickets a month, they would be transferred to less prestigious positions and/or forced to work weekends. Officials countered that the transfers were simply part of the job. The idea behind reassignment is “to allow other employees the opportunity to experience specialized positions,” said Sherriff John McMahon. “In a department as large as ours, it is inevitable that employees will be transferred at some point in their career and we do our best to avoid any hardships,” he added.

The month-long trial made headlines when, in an attempt to prove that officials did little to control bad behavior, the plaintiffs introduced a red-light camera picture that showed a deputy dressed as the Grinch shaking his fist at the camera.

Explaining the Ticket Quota Law

Commissioned salespeople who close deals get good leads in high-income parts of town; everyone else has to make sales calls where the people have neither interest in the product nor money to buy it. That’s the way things work in almost any business.

However, writing traffic tickets is not just “any business,” because public-sector employers must abide by more restrictive rules that are designed to curb abuses, and that’s the idea behind VC 41603. Under this law, it is legal to keep tabs on officers based on how many citations they write, but it is illegal to link promotion/demotion-level decisions with a certain number of traffic tickets.

Getting Legal Help

The aggressive attorneys at Bigger & Harman, APC, are committed to giving individuals a voice when dealing with speeding and traffic tickets. Call today at 661-349-9300 or email attorney@markbigger.com to receive the personal professional attention you deserve. En español, llame al 661-349-9755.