That allegations, attributed to "a whistleblower," was included in a lawsuit the Missouri Attorney General's office filed today in Newton County Circuit Court against the City of Diamond.
The petition alleges Jones posted officers' ticket totals, pressured officers who were not meeting their quotas and provided the information on the individual officers' ticket results to the Diamond mayor and City Council.
From the petition:
On March 27, 2019, the Office of the Missouri Attorney General obtained credible information of violations of Missouri law committed by Respondent from whistleblowers familiar with the police department’s internal operations.
On information and belief, Chief of Police Michael Jones, on behalf of the City of Diamond, has given instructions to department employees to increase the number of traffic citations that they are currently issuing.
On information and belief, the Chief of Police is motivated not by a concern for public safety, but rather he gave these instructions to department employees in order to generate additional funds for the City.
On information and belief, in the past, the Chief of Police has told employees the money was needed to “keep the lights on.” On information and belief, the Chief of Police is encouraging quotas or mandates to raise additional revenue for other municipal purposes, which may include vehicle maintenance and repairs and other expenses.
On information and belief, the Chief of Police has told employees they are “behind on our ticket count” and need to issue about 50 tickets a month.
According to one whistleblower, the Chief of Police is more interested in having officers write tickets than conducting drug investigations.
On information and belief, the Chief of Police has put the ticket count of individual officers on a white board and followed up with officers for not issuing enough tickets. On information and belief, the Chief of Police has sent to the Mayor and Board of Alderman the ticket count of individual officers on a regular basis.
On information and belief, the Chief of Police wrote on a white board that the department was “way behind on Highway Safety Enforcement” (sic). On information and belief, the Chief of Police wrote on a white board “We R 5000.00 B hind - Issue some Tickets RFN” (sic).
On information and belief, this statement referred to the fact that the Chief of Police wished to quickly generate $5,000 of municipal revenue. On information and belief, RFN stands for “Right Freaking Now” or “Right [Expletive] Now.”
One whistleblower thought it was the latter.
Through this conduct, the Chief of Police and the City’s conduct required or encouraged City employees to issue a minimum number of citations for traffic violations on a quota basis.
The attorney general's office is asking for preliminary and permanent injunctions stopping the ticket quota practice, plus costs, attorney fees and whatever other costs are "deemed just and proper."
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