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Regional Report: Concern Over State Police DUI Stop Quotas

AP/ Toby Talbot

Vermont State Police are cracking down on driving under the influence with a new initiate called “Operation Sober Summer."

But recent reports in the Burlington Free Press suggest that some of the stops are based not necessarily on evidence of impaired driving, but rather by a quota system. Friday's Regional Report takes a look at this story.

Mike Donoghue has reported on this issue for the Burlington Free Press. He says according to two Vermont State Police memo's he obtained through a public records request, the force listed a "benchmark" of 1.75 stops per officer per hour. Another memo rounded that figure up to two stops per hour.

Donoghue says that while there may have always been unwritten goals for vehicle stops, it’s unusual to see these types of benchmarks documented.

“This was the first time I think we’ve seen where the State Police had actually reduced it to writing, telling the Troopers what was specifically expected of them. That you need to have two vehicle stops every hour,” said Donoghue.

Some have raised the idea that police may be stopping vehicles unnecessarily. Donoghue says one reason the goal may have been communicated to troopers is accountability. There is additional grant support to fund Operation Sober Summer, and the state police may want to be sure their officers are actually making the streets safer.

“I think there’s concern that in some of these programs in the past, that the state police have just driven around sometimes, collecting time and a half,” says Donoghue.

Several attorneys have requested to see copies of the police memos Donoghue obtained. He declined that request, but expects the memos are likely to be used in upcoming DUI cases, potentially to show that quotas are causing police to stop drivers who aren’t doing anything wrong.

But as Donoghue points out, stopping too few drivers would be viewed as a problem too.

“I think the public wants our highways to be safe and free from impaired drivers, but on the other hand they’re trying to avoid police overreaction or a police state.”

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
Annie Russell was VPR's Deputy News Director. She came to VPR from NPR's Weekends on All Things Considered and WNYC's On The Media. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School.
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