GALENA PARK, Texas – Audio recordings released to KPRC Local 2 suggest that the Galena Park Police Department requires officers to write a certain number of tickets per week.
Also known as a ticket quota, it's against the law in the state of Texas.
The recording is several minutes long and is a conversation between a sergeant and an officer who is still on probation. The sergeant tells the officer that he's been following her police activity for the last three weeks and questions the number of citations she gave.
"I got eight tickets one week, 11 tickets one week, and four tickets one week. You're working the busiest shift there is and you only got four tickets? Why?" said the sergeant. "Four tickets in a week? You can write four tickets in an hour on this shift. The gold number around here has always been ten. That's for people not on probation. You're on probation, you need to do double what everybody else does."
David Tang, a Houston attorney, represents several former Galena Park Police Department employees who have since been fired and are now suing for something unrelated.
But Tang said this audio recording is part of the lawsuit against the police department.
"This is a dirty little secret in the city of Galena Park," Tang said. "Hopefully, the Texas Rangers will come in and investigate because this is illegal."
The Galena Park Police Department told KPRC Local 2 they know ticket quotas are against the law and they have a policy against them. They have also launched an internal investigation.
"Because this may allege a policy violation and possibly a law violation. The office of the police chief is taking it seriously and opening an internal affairs investigation to review it," said Paul Lavalle, the attorney representing the current and former Galena Park police chief.
"We do want to interview the officers involved and see if there's a policy violation," added Lavalle.