►
Description
Chief of Police M. Douglas Scott held this press conference this morning (March 20, 2012) to address a March 1, 2012 Arlington County Police Department memorandum, titled "Proactivity expectations 2012," that has been brought to public attention.
A
A
B
Hi
everyone,
I'm
Doug,
Scott
I'm,
the
chief
of
police
here
in
Arlington
I,
do
want
to
make
a
brief
statement
and
I'll
certainly
entertain
any
questions
that
you
have.
The
new
story
that's
been
broadcast
started
last
evening
and
into
today
has
identified
that
there
is
citizen
or
even
resident
confusion
concerning
ticket
quotas
here
in
Arlington
and
I
want
to
address
that
issue.
B
This
morning
I
rescinded
the
proactivity
guideline
memo
issued
by
patrol
commanders
earlier
this
month,
because
it
has
created
confusion.
There
is
no
month-to-month
or
day-to-day
numeric
quota
system
for
our
officers
and
I
want
to
be
emphatic
about
that.
I
do
feel
that
most
employers
have
performance
expectations
for
their
employees.
I
would
expect
that
your
producers
have
performance
expectations
about
stories
that
you
do
and
I
do
believe
that
the
public
readers
realizes
that
it's
reasonable
for
us
to
have
performance
expectations
for
our
officers.
B
However,
citing
specific
squad
averages,
benchmarks
or
targets
leads
to
confusion
about
quotas,
the
mere
suggestion
of
a
quota
system
and
a
police
department
damages
or
sullies
the
professional
reputation.
The
agency
and
I
take
that
very
seriously.
We
take
great
pride
here
in
Arlington
in
our
professional
reputation
and
we
have
great
support
from
the
community.
So
I
wanted
to
take
the
time
this
morning
to
get
out
in
front
of
this
issue,
because
my
command
staff
and
I
take
it
very
seriously,
and
the
county
leadership
also
takes
it
very
seriously.
B
I
want
to
inform
the
public
through
you
that
we
take
this
issue
seriously.
We
do
not
have
quotas
and
we
do
not
want
there
to
be
any
confusion
with
our
officers
with
the
public
that
we
have
numeric
expectations
and
value
quantity
over
quality,
because
we
simply
do
not,
and
with
that
I
will
take
your
questions,
who.
C
C
B
Sure
it
evolved
from
a
discussion
between
patrol
supervisors
and
patrol
officers
and
that
led
to
a
discussion
with
patrol
commanders
about
what
are
your
expectations.
I
think
it
is
reasonable
for
officers
to
say
what
do
you
expect
of
me
month
to
month
day
to
day,
and
so
through
that
discussion
they
came
up
with
the
memorandum
and
I.
Think
in
hindsight
you
know
they.
They
understand.
There
was
a
better
way
to
communicate
that
there's.
C
C
B
I
think
that
that's
better
to
be
a
one-on-one
situation.
If
you
have
an
officer
who's
underperforming
consistently,
then
a
supervisor
needs
to
address
that
I.
Think
the
public
expects
our
officers
to
go
out
there
every
day
and
do
their
job
I
expect
them
to
go
out
there
every
day
and
do
their
job
you
know,
but
to
establish
you
know,
benchmark,
averages
and
totals
and
simply
state.
B
If
you
don't
hit,
this
number
I
saw
your
story
yesterday
and
I
saw
a
person
say:
yeah
I
think
they
go
out
at
the
end
of
the
month
and
crank
up.
The
numbers.
I
would
expect
that
that
not
happens
here
in
Arlington
I.
Think
that
goes
against
our
professional
image
and
I.
Don't
want
our
officers
doing
it.
B
A
C
B
C
B
Think
when
you
put
a
number
on
it,
you
know
you
put
unreasonable
expectations.
For
example,
there
could
be
many
factors
over
the
course
of
a
month
that
might
influence
how
many
arrests
or
tickets
an
officer
might
write.
They
may
have
training,
they
may
have
court,
they
may
have.
You
know,
calls
for
service
that
have
taken
them
out
of
service
for
the
entire
day.
B
B
C
B
It's
absolutely
important,
you
know
the
officer
can
evaluate
each
of
their
contacts
with
the
citizen
and
they
make
the
decision
whether
or
not
they're
going
to
let
somebody
go
with
a
verbal
warning,
whether
or
not
they're
going
to
write
them
a
written
warning
or
whether
or
not
they're
going
to
actually
issue
a
summons.
And
you
know,
police
commanders
are
very
careful
not
to
try
to
step
on
an
individual
officers.
Discretion.
B
No
I
would
be
against
an
annual
one
as
well.
You
know
yeah.
It
could
go
right
down
to
daily
monthly
annual.
You
know,
but
we
do
expect
that
officers
go
out
there
and
have
something
to
show
for
their
their
daily
activity
on
a
regular
basis.
So
you
know,
if
you
asked
me,
do
we
expect
our
officers
to
make
arrests
right
traffic
tickets
handle
field
investigation
reports
investigate
accidents?
The
answer
is
yes.
When
I
looked
at
the
numbers
on
the
proactivity
guidelines,
I
wasn't
alarmed
by
them.
B
Those
numbers
really
shouldn't
be
hard
to
hit,
for
example,
if
an
officer
invested
if
they
worked
15
days
a
month
and
they
investigated
accidents
on
every
one
of
those
days
and
probably
95
percent
of
the
cases
I
handled
as
a
police
officer
back
in
the
day,
when
I
actually
did
that
I
wrote
a
ticket
because
I
found
somebody
at
fault
and
I
charged
them
appropriately.
So
writing
15
to
30
traffic
tickets
a
month.
You
know,
based
upon
the
amount
of
unobligated
time
an
officer
has
is
really
not
a
difficult
thing
to
do.
A
B
Yes,
they
they're
they're
embarrassed
by
the
fact
that
this
story
is
kind
of
gone
viral
and
that
it
is
taken.
It
is
in
a
way
sullied
the
professional
reputation
of
the
department
and
they're
in
full
support
of
resending
the
memo
and
and
clarifying
any
confusion
both
inside
the
agency
and
outside
the
agency.
A
B
Dustin
has
a
copy
of
that
memo
and
he'll
provide
it
to.
You
basically
says
that,
based
upon
the
news
reports
and
the
attention
that
this
has
gained,
I
have
to
eliminate
any
confusion.
I've
rescinded
the
memo
and
I
wanted
to
make
it
clear
within
the
organization
that
quotas
are
not
tolerated.
Nor
expected
in
this
agency.
C
C
B
That
that
was
about
a
year
ago,
and
actually
it
was
the
result
of
the
budget
two
years
ago,
when
it
was
pointed
out
to
us
in
the
budget,
County
revenue
is
not
reflected
in
the
police
department
budget.
I
think
that's
important
to
note,
but
it
was
pointed
out
to
us
in
the
budget
discussions
that
revenue
as
a
result
of
traffic
arrests
was
down
in
the
county
and
when
we
investigated
that
we
found
that
officers
were
primarily
charging
their
traffic
violations
under
state
code
and
the
reason
for
that
was.
B
It
was
their
belief
that
somebody
charged
under
County
code
would
not
have
the
ability
to
prepay
the
fine.
Therefore,
if
we
wrote
you
a
ticket
for
running
a
red
light
under
state
codes,
you
could
prepay
the
fine
and
not
have
to
come
to
court
if
we
wrote
it
under
County
code,
you
had
to
come
to
court
and
so
through
investigating
that
we
learned
that
there's
only
a
couple
of
County
codes
that
require
people
to
come
to
court
and
obviously
most
jurisdictions.
All
across
Virginia
have
the
option
of
charging
County
code
versus
state
code.
B
That
memo
was
intended
to
clarify
that
and
directed
officers
the
proper
box
to
check
on
a
summons
so
that
you
know
that
revenue
generated
by
an
Arlington,
County
officer
could
come
back
to
Arlington
County
and
benefit
the
citizens
of
the
county,
because
the
county
does
offset.
The
cost
of
you
know,
running
the
court
system
and
obviously,
if
we
have
a
police
department,
but
it
does
not
come
directly
to
us
and
we're
not
trying
to
just
generate
revenue
for
the
police
department.