Ohio police quotas eliminated through SB 114 to improve trust in law enforcement John Hilber

On July 1, Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 114 into law, which prohibits law enforcement from using quotas for arrests and citations as a way to evaluate officer performance. The law became effective on Sept. 30. Both Republicans and Democrats voiced their support for the law.

SB 114 was sponsored primarily by Sen. Thomas Patton (R-Strongsville).

“The Fraternal Order of Police asked us to sponsor this bill due to a few bad actors using quotas,” Patton said. “There were some complaints from residents as well.”

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were 84,096 citations issued for seatbelt and distracted driving citations in 2024. Overall, Troopers were involved in 1,001,893 incidents, which was a 4% increase from the previous year.

Still, numbers increase in enforcement stops and non-enforcement activity, there were 875,451 instances from January to November of 2024, whereas there are 885,508 instances in the same time frame for this year. 

Numbers like these helped lawmakers discover a purpose for their bill.

“The purpose of SB 114 was to make clear that ticket quotas are not the proper way to conduct traffic enforcement,” Patton said. “Traffic enforcement is important for keeping the roads safe, but it can be done fairly when violations occur. Law enforcement should never be conducted to check a box. I think that it is important that we protect the ability for officers to enforce this themselves, which many wanted to do but didn’t want to be punished, by allowing for anonymous reporting.”

Ohio police issued 215, 925 speeding tickets last year, which made Ohio the third-most ticketed state in the nation. Around 7.8% of Ohio drivers had a speeding ticket on their record last year.

Patton was encouraged to pass a law like SB 114 because he felt there needed to be more positive views on the state’s police force going forward because these numbers could point to why there are negative opinions on police in Ohio.

“I wanted to address a small number of agencies still using this practice to increase Ohioans confidence in their law enforcement,” Patton said. “Law enforcement should not be used as a source of funding for local governments.”

If someone is ticketed under a city statute, all the money owed goes to the city. However, if someone is given a ticket under a state statute, it is a little bit different. Around 50% of the fine goes directly to the state. . Another 40% goes to the city where the person was prosecuted. The final 10% goes to the general fund of the county where the ticket was given. 

Lieutenant Michael Lewis of the Kent Police Department said the force has had no quotas as long as he has been there. The department does have, he said, “performance expectations.”

“Every citizen should be expecting us to perform a certain level of work,” he said. “Not everybody needs a written ticket, but obviously there has to be traffic enforcement. That’s why we’re here. That’s the responsibility that we have taken on, and that’s our duty to serve our citizens.”

Lewis says that the discourse around police quotas is pushed forward through public misconceptions, saying that there are sometimes more elements in specific circumstances that might increase citations like weather, traffic or preference for strictness.

Regardless, Lewis says the recent bill passing will not impact or impede the Kent Police Department at all.

“The bill is not going to affect us because we didn’t have quotas in the first place,” Lewis said. “We expect all of our employees and all of our officers to live to the oath that they took, and we expect them to perform. It is their job to seek out violations, seek out criminal behavior, and deal with it accordingly.”

Additionally, the community in Kent and other areas in Ohio should not feel a difference in police behavior due to the passing of the bill, Lewis said. 

However, Patton still thinks the bill is an important one to pass for Ohioans.

“Ohioans should know that when they are pulled over, it is for a legitimate traffic enforcement reason,” he said. “It is not because the officer is trying to meet a quota to stay in good standing with the department.”

Ohioans may not notice the changes due to the elimination of quotas because there were not a lot of agencies still using quotas, but some still are, according to Patton. In the long term , however, Patton predicts there will be an increase in trust between the public and Ohio law enforcement, and he said that increased trust and confidence is invaluable.

“This is something that we’ve never done, but we certainly expect our police officers to enforce laws with the amount of vehicles that are out there and understand the overall purpose of traffic enforcement,” Lewis said. “It’s to reduce traffic crashes. It’s to reduce injuries, or the potential of possible injuries. So I’m certainly in favor of traffic enforcement.”