KEY POINTS:
Canterbury Police has overruled a senior officer who had required his staff to reach a set number of issued traffic tickets a year.
Police chiefs decided to step in after an internal memo from Senior Sergeant John Robinson was leaked to media, reigniting debate over whether police have
a quota system for traffic tickets.
The memo informed 12 police youth educators that the number of traffic tickets they had to issue had been reduced from 197 this year to 80.
The National Party has pounced on the memo and called for an explanation from Police Minister Annette King, after she gave assurances last year that police did not have quotas but had performance guidelines.
Mr Robinson's email, sent on Friday, was in response to feedback about "the requirement for some notices to be written as part of your KRAs (key result areas)".
"You do need to write tickets!" the email said. "The schools want it, the kids want it, the community want it ... I want it. Education does not work without the support of Enforcement."
Mr Robinson has said the figure was a guideline, not a quota. But Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Sandra Manderson said that a specific target could be interpreted as a quota.
"We don't have quotas in the district, [but] that's how it came out, that's how people were interpreting it," she told the Herald. "It was inappropriate to set a specific number, as staff should enforce any offences they detect. The senior sergeant is modifying the policy."
The new policy would require the officers to be involved in enforcement as well as education.
"There will be no number, no quota. It wasn't meant to be a quota; it was meant to be a guideline."
Ms Manderson said the decision had been taken to quash any confusion over the matter.
But National police spokesman Chester Borrows said the memo proved it was common practice for police to be required to fill traffic ticket quotas.
The memo was the fourth one of this nature in recent times and put Ms King's credibility on the line, he said.
"This is an issue about quotas, about police being ordered to go out and 'find' a set number of tickets ... and about denials from Annette King.
"It's clear that quotas exist, and that police have their salaries pegged to the number of tickets they dish out through KRAs."
A spokesman for Ms King said Police Commissioner Howard Broad last year issued a directive for police to target crash areas for traffic enforcement, rather than concentrate on issuing tickets. It was up to police chiefs to make sure the directive was followed.
Police Association vice-president Stewart Mills said the memo had taken the focus away from the real issue of public safety.
"As long as tickets are being issued for offences, it's not a problem. We have no problem with the email."
Officers were required to issue a set number of tickets a year. The amount depended on an officer's role and district.
"It's a performance issue," said Mr Mills. "KRAs are areas they have to perform in."
Police came under attack last July after a job sheet from the Central North Island District was made public, urging staff to target areas with high traffic flows "as it is the last week before the end of the accounting year for us, it is a great opportunity to get our ticket count up".