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Ogden Police Chief Eric Young, photographed in his office on Wednesday, July 12, 2023.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner File Photo

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A screen shot of the section of the Ogden police officer review form governing performance in handling of traffic matters. It's one of nine areas in which officers face review.

Image supplied, Ogden Police Department

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An Ogden Police Department patrol car is shown in 2018 in Ogden.

Jacob Scholl, Standard-Examiner file photo

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Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes addresses the crowd during an election watch party held at Mitt Romney's campaign headquarters on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in Orem.

Evan Cobb, Daily Herald file photo

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OGDEN — The Ogden Police Department is getting scrutiny from the Utah Attorney General’s Office stemming from news reports its officer-evaluation policy may have the effect of encouraging officers to issue traffic citations, which would be in violation of a state law prohibiting ticketing quotas.

Utah Rep. Ryan Wilcox, an Ogden Republican, said he asked for the review in response to a series of news reports targeting “traffic criteria” provisions in the police department’s appraisal policy for patrol officers. Wilcox has stood behind the department, but said if attorney general’s office officials find “a gray area” in the policy, it ought to get attention.

“So far, they haven’t seen anything that we need to adjust,” said Wilcox, noting, nonetheless, that the review continues. The section in question of Ogden’s multi-pronged officer-evaluation policy covers performance in handling traffic-related issues. It measures success, essentially, in terms of numbers of citations issued, which has given rise to suggestions the city has ticketing quotas.

Ogden Police Chief Eric Young said he is aware of the review by the attorney general’s office — Wilcox discussed it with him and Mayor Mike Caldwell — and that he welcomes it. He has cooperated with state officials and is awaiting a final report.

“If you come back and tell us we have to change something, we’re going to change something, 100%,” Young said. Still, he stood by the policy — as he has all along — and rejected suggestions its provisions related to ticketing are aimed at prodding officers to write more citations to generate revenue.

Fox 13, a Salt Lake City television station, has reported on the issue since May, citing, in part, several unnamed current and former Ogden officers who say they have felt pressure, via the performance-review process, to write more tickets. The reports suggest that by tying performance reviews to ticketing, Ogden’s officer-evaluation policy may amount to a quota system, prohibited by 2018 legislation, Senate Bill 154.

Fox 13 also obtained a series of Ogden Police Department emails via a public records request in which some officers discuss ticketing and the revenue it generates, though there don’t seem to be any explicit calls in the exchanges for police to issue more tickets.

Young, for his part, said the evaluation parameters related to police work on traffic issues aim only to make officers accountable for their work in the area — to make sure they are attentive to traffic matters. Officers face regular review in nine areas including traffic work, report writing, handling of investigations, public relations, teamwork, appearance/preparedness, decision making and handling of calls. The ninth area relates to numbers of arrests made, search warrants issued and more.

“Police officers have to be accountable like any other employee in whatever the field is. One of the things police officers have to do is traffic enforcement. That’s how we keep people safe, is by doing traffic enforcement,” said Young.

Per the parameters in the “traffic criteria” portion of the evaluation policy, an officer would need a score of 6.5 to 7.49 points per work week to “fully” meet department expectations. Points are earned based on tickets issued — moving and non-moving citations are each worth four points, a warning is worth two points, a parking ticket is worth one point and an arrest for drunk-driving is worth 10 points. Thus, two citations for moving or non-moving infractions would garner eight points, slightly surpassing expectations.

As described by Young, the value in issuing tickets, per the officer-evaluation policy, isn’t from the money generated but rather in its contribution to public safety. He said studies show that ticketing has the effect of lowering accident rates.

He alluded to debate that led to passage of S.B. 54 in 2018, explicitly outlawing arrest or ticketing quotas by police departments. A provision was included in the measure, Young went on, to allow for evaluation of officers’ “enforcement activity” as a means of holding them accountable for the work they do or don’t do, including ticketing.

“So we don’t come out say you’ve got to write X number of tickets a week. We just say at the end of the year when we do your evaluation, this is something you’re going to be ranked on, whether or not you’re going out and doing traffic enforcement. And that’s why that exception was put in there,” Young said.

Young addressed the Ogden City Council on the issue at the body’s May 23 meeting. City Council members expressed a range of views to the Standard-Examiner.

Councilperson Ben Nadolski said he suggested tweaking the officer-evaluation policy on traffic issues to equalize the points an officer earns for citations and warnings. As is, citations are worth four points while warnings — which don’t result in a monetary fine, unlike citations — are worth two points.

That change, backed by groups that represent Ogden police, he said, would give officers “the discretion they need to ensure safety in our community while also removing any real or perceived incentive to meet a quota,” he said.

Council members Rich Hyer and Bart Blair expressed satisfaction with the Ogden Police Department and expressed no concern with the officer-evaluation policy on traffic issues. Nadolski and Blair are running for mayor of Ogden.

“There’s got to be accountability for every job,” said Hyer. “All this does is to make sure the officers are working when they’re on the job.”

Notwithstanding the quota suggestions, Blair doesn’t think the policy needs to be changed. Wilcox  said the citizen feedback he’s getting is that maybe more traffic enforcement is needed, not less.

“Me and my neighbors aren’t worried about too much enforcement. We would like to see more enforcement,” Wilcox said.

Young said he hasn’t received negative backlash on the issue. Either way, he would be open to changing things if that’s what the community wants.

“I mean, if I would have had an overwhelming rush of feedback from citizens and the City Council that, ‘Hey, we don’t like this,’ then we’d look at making changes. I’m here to serve the citizens of Ogden and what they want to have happen in their community,” he said.