Fort Lauderdale police investigating claims of using arrest quotas

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is investigating an officer’s complaint accusing supervisors of instituting quotas for arrests and tickets, a department spokesman confirmed today.

Police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said the department’s internal affairs investigators were looking into the charges.

The Miami Herald reported in Monday’s editions that a veteran patrolman, Michael Hennessy, complained that supervisors were requiring officers to meet minimum quotas for arrests and citations, using time off, overtime and off-duty work details as rewards and denying those privileges to officers who failed to meet the quotas.

Sousa denied the existence of a quota system, referring instead to “performance standards” that used to evaluate officers.

Thanks to the Sun-Sentinel for this story.