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Home My WebLink AboutIR 8596 WORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8596 Date: May 4, 2004 �F ¢ * To the Mayor and Members of the City Council 6 Page 1 of 2 x yarn SUBJECT: Police Traffic Stops The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an article on April 27, 2004 that described a Fort Worth Police Department policy requiring that patrol officers make two traffic stops a day or face disciplinary action. The Department has no such policy. Individual officer may be counseled by their supervisor if they are not demonstrating productive work during their shift. One aspect of the productive use of an officer's time is traffic stops. The actual document referenced in the newspaper article was in the format of a structured counseling form. The form is used for one-on-one counseling of a police officer by a sergeant. This particular form was created by a West Division NPD lieutenant; however, it was never used by a supervisor to counsel with any particular officer. The NPD lieutenant had encouraged the officers to make more traffic stops during their shift. For an unknown reason, several day shift officers significantly reduced the number of traffic stops they made. The lieutenant developed the wording for the counseling form and shared it with the supervisors so the officers would know the seriousness of their actions. The document then made its way into the hands of the newspaper reporter. ,` According to information derived from the Computer-Aided Dispatch system, the city-wide average number of traffic stops per day by patrol officers is 1.9. A goal of two stops a day is not unreasonable. The possible sanctions noted in the structured counseling form, a change in days off or roll call time, are within the authority of a lieutenant to impose. A grievance procedure is available to officers who disagree with any structured counseling they receive. This procedure is outlined in the Police Department's General Orders manual. Traffic stops are not synonymous with traffic tickets. Quotas on traffic citations are prohibited by law, a fact known to every police supervisor and commander. Traffic stops serve the dual purpose of traffic enforcement and a means to uncover other criminal activity. Officers make traffic stops for violation of traffic laws. The safety of the driving public is served by assertive traffic enforcement. Traffic stops are an integral activity of policing that go beyond the traffic safety benefit. As the counseling form notes, they are also a "proactive approach to decrease Part 1 offenses..." The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) held a forum during 1998 on professional traffic stops. The conclusions of that forum continue to be valid for law enforcement across the country. From the IACP forum report: Proactive traffic enforcement is an effective strategy to protect the public from the devastation caused by drug abuse, street and highway traffic-related death and injury, illegal trafficking in and possession of weapons, continued freedom of fugitives, and to otherwise promote and 01 maintain an orderly and law abiding society. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8596 Date: May 4, 2004 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 2 of 2 Ce 1-073 SUBJECT: Police Traffic Stops Also from the report: • Studies have shown more illegal guns are taken off the street through traffic stops than through any other tactic. • The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that 40% of all drug arrests in this country are the outgrowth of traffic stops. A recently published article from the September 2003 Police Chief magazine reiterated the value of traffic stops in the broader landscape of police activity. According to Otis Cox of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Traffic law enforcement benefits can go far beyond the traffic stop. Proper scrutiny of traffic offenders often leads to significant arrests for criminal and terrorist related activities." Timothy McVey's arrest in the Oklahoma City bombing was the result of a traffic stop. Another specific example was the traffic stop made by an Oklahoma City patrol officer of a vehicle from Texas for failure to use a turn signal. That vehicle registered to a Fort Worth resident named Laura Lee Crane. Computer checks of the vehicle during the stop led to the tie-in to Mrs. Crane's robbery, abduction, and murder and to the recovery of her body. Within the Fort Worth Police Department, Chief Mendoza has emphasized traffic stops as an effective tactic for officers, especially traffic stops on neighborhood streets. Noted by the Chief was, in addition to the enforcement aspect, the visible deterrence aspect of such traffic stops. This emphasis on traffic stops has been articulated to the command staff, including the NPD commanders, during the Chiefs bi-weekly command staff meetings for the past two years. Another concept conveyed by Chief Mendoza during these meetings was the duty of the supervisors and commanders to identify and coach, counsel and train officers whose work performance was The form sent to the Star Telegram reporter combines these two concepts, that traffic stops are valuable tools beyond traffic enforcement and that supervisors have an obligation to counsel with officers who are not using their work time in productive activities. The form was not completed for any officer, but was made available within an NPD on the westside should a supervisor need to document a counseling session. The Fort Worth Police Department endeavors to create a safe city through traffic enforcement, crime prevention and crime reduction activities. Traffic stops are a valuable means to that end. If you have further questions regarding traffic stops or the form, please contact Chief Mendoza at 81�]977-�285/or Northwest Field Operations Bureau Deputy Chief Mike Manning at 817-877-8021. 7fery_ . 14son City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS ^ Or FORT WORTH: INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE � NW FIELD OPERATIONS BUREAU 11� V ONE-ON-ONE COUNSELING SESSION FORM DATE OF CONTACT: TIME: EMPLOYEE: Details: All officers in the West Division have been advised to perform two traffic stops a day, which is a proactive approach to decrease Part 1 offenses in the district and division. The consequences of not performing two traffic stops per day will result in the following: change in roll call time, days off, shift, beattrelief and/or district re- assignment. Your assignment as a dayshift officer is directly related to your ability to increase your traffic stops to a level appropriate with the goal Of two traffic stops per day. If you do not increase your traffic stops, this can only be explained as a neglect of duty on your part. tt also indicates you are not working with your team members who are striving to actively reduce Part 1 offenses in the district_ Your decision to not make an identifiable effort to increase your traffic stops to meet the goals of the division/district is not In line with your training. You are hereby instructed to increase your productivity within the next two weeks or risk losing your days off, shift, beat/relief designation and/or district assignment, After two weeks, your efforts will be re-evaluated on. If a noticeable improvement has not been made, your roll C211 time and/or days off will be changed from to effective for 90 days. Your productivity during this time will be re-evaluated for compliance. If positive, I will recommend that you be returned to your original duty status. Action Taken. You are hereby counseled for violating General Orders 703.00 Professional Conduct Sections: A-(1), H-1 thru 7 and 1. 1 attest that the following counseling session was conducted as indicated above: Employee Signature Date Supervisor: Signature Date Witness(optional)- Signature Date cc: Acting Captain S. Sullivan— NAN FOB West Division Commander 6'9119LOLT8 69:zz vg@Zlgz/tl@