Every week, the Northern Star will uncover the truth about police myths.

Busting this week’s myth is Lt. Carl Leoni of the DeKalb Police Department.

Myth

DeKalb has a monthly quota when it comes to traffic tickets.

“No; a quota is generally associated with traffic tickets and officers [having] to write a certain number of tickets,” Leoni said.

Instead, DeKalb has a point system to track officers’ activity.

“We’ve got a system where we track activity, everything that happens is attributed with a point,” Leoni said. “We don’t expect our officers to reach a certain level, because things are always changing. We don’t tell them their number. We expect them to work.”

Officers who work together on shifts are compared to one another when writing tickets.

“If everyone on your shift is writing 10 traffic tickets and you’re writing one, we’re going to say something to you,” Leoni said. “If everyone on the shift is writing two, that’s fine too. We’re not out to get a certain number of tickets.”

“People are going to believe what they want to believe. That’s how DeKalb does it; in other places, it might be different,” Leoni said.