Drivers and lawmakers have been upset with the Ogden Police Department since last spring, when FOX 13 News first exposed how the city pressures officers to write more tickets.
The Utah State Legislature banned quotas in 2018 after learning some police departments were treating drivers like piggybanks for the city.
Ogden PD Chief Eric Young has maintained he does not enforce an “illegal quota,” instead calling it a “point system” that incentivizes officers to write more tickets.
Lawmakers say it’s the same thing. They are now proposing a new bipartisan piece of legislation that would remove state funding from police departments that break the law.
“This is an opportunity to make this very clear,” said Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City. “Quotas are illegal.”
Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said he will co-sponsor the bill.
He credits months of investigative reporting by FOX 13 News for bringing the problem to light.
“Your reporting has been excellent, and I think it’s really opened the eyes of many legislators,” Weiler said. “We’re going to tighten the language up, and we’re going to attach a penalty because the state gives grants to these police departments... If you’re not following the quota law, then you may lose your grant money.”
Several lawmakers have previously expressed support for tougher enforcement on Ogden PD, including Rep. Tyler Clancy (R-Provo), Rep. Kera Birkeland (R-Morgan), Rep. Andrew Stoddard (D-Midvale), and Sen. Curt Bramble (R-Provo).
“To be frank, Ogden City in my mind has a quota system,” Birkeland said. “I think they actually went on legislative record pointing out and discussing their quota system.”
"Police departments should not be used as a revenue generator for cities, especially when they were told years ago to abandon the quota practice," Stoddard said.
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“With your investigation and the information that was brought forward in committee, it raised serious questions,” Bramble said. “The statute didn’t say quotas are okay if it’s only one of ten criteria that are looked at.”
Chief Young defended his ticketing practices to the Ogden City Council in May. He was summoned to testify before the Legislature’s Administrative Rules and General Oversight Committee in August. The issue of quotas also came up during an officer’s termination hearing in October.
“I think that’s ridiculous, totally ridiculous, and they need to quit doing it,” said driver Jan Piepgrass. “Please do away with the point system and obey the laws!”
Some of the lawmakers who listened to Chief Young’s testimony said they were not impressed, especially after listening to statements from anonymous Ogden PD officers who feared retaliation for speaking against the point system.
“It’s non-stop stress,” one officer said. “How am I going to get my tickets? How am I going to get my numbers?”
“We want to be able to do our jobs,” said another officer. “My job is not a tax collector.”
Chief Young stated that the point system is designed to weed out lazy officers.
“I can find two violations in less than five minutes,” he said. “It’s two (tickets) for a 40-hour week. That’s it. Two tickets in a 40-hour week, and it’s not a quota... To get above a ‘moderate’ level, you’d only have to write two a week – which would be eight a month.”
“Is requiring one ticket a year a quota? Yes, it’s a quota of one ticket a year,” Bramble said.
“Whether it’s two tickets a week or 40 tickets in 40 hours, that’s still a quota,” Weiler said. “We don’t want cops out there saying, ‘Oh shoot, I’ve only got two hours left. I’ve got to write four more tickets today,’ and then they’re pulling over people that aren’t really justified to be pulled over.”
Records obtained by FOX 13 News show Chief Young’s statements about officer only having to write “two tickets a week” may not be accurate.
According to one officer’s annual review, he was told to write more tickets even after he “exceeded expectations.”
According to an email written by Lt. Cameron Stiver, traffic cops are expected to write one citation per hour. They usually exceed that goal, he wrote.
“The standard in traffic has always been one citation per street hour, so if an officer works 75 street hours they should have a minimum of 75 citations... The standard for traffic has always been, one citation per street hour, minimum.”
The “point system” has contributed to Ogden raising more money per capita in fines and forfeitures than any other large city in Utah.
“This is what makes people hate us,” one officer said. “There’s no trust. We don’t even trust our own administration, so why would we expect the public to trust our administration?”
Chief Young stated he believes the “point system” is not in violation of the law.
“I was working with the legislature when this bill came around, and I understood what the concerns were,” he said.
In response, both sponsors of the original bill said Chief Young was clearly breaking the law.
Weiler said he believes Ogden PD tried to intentionally create a loophole, referring to the “point system” as a “pretty lame excuse.”
“As I read the (current) law, I don’t think it could be any more clear,” Weiler said. “I was there when the law was debated. I voted for the law. We all understood the spirit and intent of the law... What’s been talked about in the halls of here is it was actually this same police department that came to the legislature and said, ‘Can you tweak the language so it says this?’ and now after that tweak was adopted, they’re saying, ‘Well, it’s ambiguous, so we don’t think we’re violating it.’ If that’s what happened? Shame on us, but we’re going to fix that now.”
The “point system” was also a frequently-discussed topic during Ogden’s mayoral debates in 2023.
“I’m not in favor of it,” said Ben Nadolski, who ended up winning the election. “That’s my opinion that I expressed right from the beginning when it first came up... It erodes trust when people think – or know – that there is a quota in our city!”
Nadolski has not made any changes to the “point system” since being sworn into office in 2024.
He declined FOX 13 News’ request for an on-camera interview.
A spokesperson for the city said Nadolski has been having “collaborative discussions” with Chief Young and that they “have no interest in promoting quotas.”
Dailey-Provost and Weiler said they will move forward with the bill regardless of Ogden’s decision.
“We are really trying to do the right thing,” Dailey-Provost said. “There will be some very real implications if departments are found to be not in compliance with the coming changes.”
“A lot of our police officers have been under attack, and I’ve been one of the first people to step up and try to defend them. They have a difficult job. Sometimes an impossible job,” Weiler said. “But they can’t treat the laws like a smorgasbord and pick the ones they like and ignore the ones they don’t like.”