Montreal’s infamous traffic-ticket quotas end
City paid $350K in bonuses linked to ticketing in 2016
MONTREAL— Montreal’s widely loathed quota system for traffic tickets is over, says Mayor Valérie Plante, as are lucrative performance bonuses for bosses that were tied to lowerlevel cops reaching the targets.
Drivers aren’t getting off easily, however, because the city’s new budget estimates Montreal will collect roughly $12 million more in revenues from traffic and parking violations this year than in 2017.
The union representing police officers, known as the Brotherhood, had been calling for an end to the quotas for years. But past mayors had officially denied any system existed, and it remained the subject of rumour among frustrated motorists who suspected police were trapping drivers primarily to collect revenue for City Hall.
After winning office last November, Montreal’s new government confirmed the system was real.
“The police directors, in order to get bonuses, the cops under them had to reach a certain number of tickets,” Nathalie Goulet, the city councillor responsible for public security, said in a recent interview. “The bonuses used to be as high as 8 per cent of a director’s annual salary.”
In 2016, she said, the city paid a total of $350,000 in bonuses linked to fines handed to motorists.
“We don’t think it’s the first mission of the police to trap drivers or cyclists for traffic violations,” Goulet said. “Police will continue to give tickets, but they will no longer be tied to the evaluation of their (bosses).”
Goulet said she didn’t know what the quotas were.
In 2014, police union head Yves Francoeur told reporters that police bikers had a target of 18 tickets per day, while the traffic squad had 16. “Depending on the staffing of a police station, it’s between 450 and 1,500 a month (per station),” he said at the time.
Francoeur claimed that in order to fulfil their monthly quotas, police were told to ignore all but the most serious calls on some days, and instead focus on handing out fines.
The union has been silent since the new mayor made the announcement. “We have clearly stated our position in the past on this issue,” Brotherhood spokesperson Martin Desrochers said in an email.
Despite the end of the quota system, Goulet couldn’t say exactly why the city predicted it would collect more money this year in fines. A city spokesperson couldn’t provide a clear answer, either.
Montreal lawyer Avi Levy, who runs Ticket 911, a company dedicated to representing people charged with driving violations, said the end of the quota system will likely mean police officers have more discretion regarding whether to give a ticket.
“Maybe we’ll see less tickets and more warnings,” he said. “Myself and clients haven’t seen warnings in a long time (from police) — in years.”
The Montreal police did not return a request for comment.