Wyoming Highway Patrol Abandons Ticket Quotas

By Associated Press – 23 Dec ’14

The Wyoming Highway Patrol no longer will require troopers to meet yearly numbers on traffic stops and citations.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Col. John Butler announced Tuesday the agency is ending the policy starting next year.

Under the policy, troopers in Laramie and Albany counties were expected to each make at least 732 traffic stops and issue at least 55 seat belt violation tickets per year to be deemed “competent.”

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle first reported the agency had instituted the policy beginning in August. The newspaper reported that law enforcement and civil liberties groups expressed concern that the practice could increase the risk of questionable stops.

In reversing the policy, Butler says it wasn’t intended as a quota but as way to gauge whether the patrol was meeting traffic safety goals.