People have suspected for many years that police officers do indeed have quotas for issuing traffic tickets. Cynics say that the practice is nothing more than a cash grab for local governments.
And now, the Montreal Police union is saying it's true: police in Montreal have a minimum amount of tickets to issue everyday.
In fact, the Montreal Police Brotherhood says officers were recently told by their superiors to start issuing 28 tickets a day -- up from their last daily quota of 18.
"There's only one priority for the city hall. That's giving tickets, bringing more revenue to the city hall instead of fighting criminality," Yves Francoeur, the police union president, told CTV Montreal.
The police department has raised its quota to make up for the more than $13.8 million in budget cuts from earlier this year, said the union.
However, Claude Dauphin, Montreal executive committee chairman, said if there is a quota, it's news to him.
"I'm not aware of that," he says. "What they explained to me a couple of years ago, was that every police officer [has] an average of tickets that they're issuing every day."
The union is in the midst of contract negotiations with the city, so Dauphin says there might be a strategy behind the union's public assertion.
But Francoeur says it's simply about ethics.
"When they ask an officer to give tickets only for more money, we don't agree with that," he said.
The Toronto Police Service had a similar incident in December 2006 in which officers at 23 Division who collected 25 tickets in one shift were allowed to leave work early.
Police discovered the scheme at the Rexdale department after investigating two officers for insubordination.
But the problem wasn't widespread.
The so-called "25 and out" practice was isolated to just the one division and only lasted for eight weeks.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Daniele Hamamdjian
