RICHARDSON, Texas — Two Texas police officers have filed a lawsuit against their employing city as well as senior police leadership over allegations that they’ve been required to abide by a ticket quota system.
Officers Kayla Walker and David Conklin of the Richardson Police Department were the individuals who filed the lawsuit, WFAA reported.
The two officers also allege that members of their command staff have retaliated against them after they made public statements to the Richardson City Council and media outlets in 2021, and after they filed criminal reports with outside law enforcement authorities.
According to the officers’ civil action, an outside investigation confirmed the illegal activities, but “remarkably claimed the quota policy was not illegal merely because it was part of a broader policy that included components that were not unlawful.”
Moreover, a Dallas District Court judge is being asked to “declare the ticket quota policy in violation Section 772.002 of the Texas Transportation Code that prohibits all formal or informal ticket quotas, order the Richardson Police Department to stop the illegal policy, and compensate the officers for the violations of their First Amendment right to free speech.”
When Walker spoke before the city council in May 2021, she said, “The Richardson Police Department has been illegally using quotas to evaluate and discipline officers. Patrol officers are threatened with punishments for not writing enough tickets, arresting enough people and making enough citizen contacts,” Law Officer reported at the time.
In response to the lawsuit, the Richardson Police Department sent WFAA the following statement:
Tonight, the findings of an investigation into an alleged ticket quota was presented to the City Council. The investigation will be placed on the RPD Transparent Policing page of the Richardson’s Police Department website.
The Richardson Police Department does not have a ticket quota, nor will a ticket quota be allowed by me or any member of our organization. If words or actions state, or imply otherwise, any employee should promptly notify our Internal Affairs supervisor or contact me directly.
Furthermore, as your Chief of Police, I will not tolerate retaliatory or punitive behavior against any employee involved in these allegations, nor against those who participated in this investigation.
My expectations and the expectations of the community continue to be for our officers to provide traffic management strategies to best keep our community safe on our roadways and to do so with diligence and integrity.
Gary T. Little
Chief of Police
Walker said last year, “The command staff does this under the guise of monthly productivity reports to compare officers to one another.”
OFFICERS SPEAK WITH WFAA IN 2021
