State Senate votes to ban traffic-ticket quotas

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Senate voted unanimously Thursday to bar cities, counties and law-enforcement agencies from setting traffic-ticket quotas, responding to criticism some communities have been too reliant on raising money from issuing these and other types of citations.

The bill would make it a crime for a public official to require any police officer to write a certain number of citations and prohibit supervisors from suggesting subordinates issue more tickets.

Its St. Louis-area sponsors, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt and Democratic Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, said it builds on other measures passed in response to the unrest that stemmed from the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Last year, Missouri enacted a law lowering the percentage of revenue cities can collect from traffic fines.

And earlier in the current session, the Senate passed a bill capping the fines for local ordinance violations.

That bill and the one passed Thursday now head to the House for consideration.

Cities' traffic fines have come under scrutiny since a white police officer shot and killed Brown, an unarmed black teenager.