Report: Phoenix police leaders discuss shakeup to boost officer productivity

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Police Department is having discussions about implementing drastic changes to improve productivity among rank-and-file officers.

“We are still formulating our plan,” said Assistant Police Chief Harry Markley.

Top department brass is assessing how police officers are using their time while on the clock and looking at ways to motivate them to do more by setting a department-wide numeric average standard that officers must meet or exceed on a monthly basis.

“It could be how many reports you write, could be how long you spend writing the report, could be how many accidents you take, how many arrests you make, could be how many traffic stops you make, could be a lot of things,” said Markley. ” ‘Quotas’ is not a word that we use,” he added.

According to one anonymous police source, failure to meet standards would have a negative impact on an officers personnel file, which could disqualify them from promotions or other opportunities within the department.

Police officers who wished to remain anonymous said by establishing such “standards,” officers would feel pressured into complying, which would result in unnecessary arrests and citations.

Department leaders said they are still discussing a course of action.