If you’re a resident of Connecticut, pay extra special attention to feeding your parking meter and using your turn signal today: Connecticut state police troopers are being encouraged to ticket as many people as possible Friday, according to an internal memo obtained by WTNH-TV8 in New Haven.
In the memo, a lieutenant challenges his troopers to outdo their colleagues in a different troop.
“[W]e have to issue at least 60 infractions / Misdemeanors [sic] each shift for a total of 180 infractions in order to outperform both Troop F and Troop G,” the memo from Lt. Anthony Schirillo commands.
“The back story is this,” the memo goes on to explain. “One day Troop F issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 in one day. We can do better.”
Schirillo wrote that his troop should pull ahead of both of the other troops, proportionally to the number of members in each unite. He added, though, that he was not opposed to a straight-up win.
“NOTE if we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day that would be stellar,” the memo concludes.
The memo was sent on March 29 just before noon, according to the email time stamp.
A spokesman for the Connecticut state police, Lt. Paul Vance, denied that there was any sort of quota system in effect when asked by WTNH. But the station obtained a separate memo that suggests otherwise.
“The master sergeant and I will buy pizza for the shift with the highest total,” that memo reportedly promises.