York Co. sheriff candidates spar over ticket quotas

Do York County sheriff’s deputies have traffic violation “quotas” that they are required to meet?

It depends on which candidate for York County sheriff you ask.

The issue was brought up multiple times during Monday’s Greater York Chamber of Commerce candidate forum.

Former crime scene investigator John H. Williams has made the elimination of quotas a cornerstone of his campaign.

“I’ll eliminate traffic ticket quotas and have our officers in high-traffic areas around the towns and cities,” Williams said during opening statements Monday. “Traffic laws will still be enforced but quotas are unnecessary.”

The issue bled over into the first question about each candidate’s thoughts on community policing, during which Williams said he wants to “free up the officers’ time so they’re not tied up writing traffic tickets” and have them patrolling neighborhoods more.

Kevin Tolson, an investigator with the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and Williams’ opponent, said quotas simply do not exist.

“If he’s confusing statistical analysis about where crimes are occurring and where to move your resources, that’s a mistake,” Tolson said, referring to the agency’s PRO-STAR initiative that includes community-based district policing and examination of trends and statistical analysis to determine where to put resources. “To say that the sheriff’s office has ticket quotas has thrown a dark cloud over the sheriff’s office and law enforcement altogether in this county.”

After Tolson’s answer to the next question about combating gang activity in York County, Williams agreed that drugs and gang crime are two of the main concerns locally, but again returned to the issue of quotas.

“Call them quotas, call them goals, call them performance indicators – anytime a department uses a number to guide and direct their ticket writing, they’ve lost their connection with the community,” Williams said, holding up a stack of papers with text and tables highlighted in yellow.

“Since he hasn’t been with the sheriff’s office for over 12 years, I’m guessing my opponent didn’t get this memo,” he said. “Here are the goals, aka quotas, for the York County Sheriff’s Office in 2012 in the York district. In 2012, they wrote 843 traffic tickets. Their 2013 goal is 875. They wanted to increase that over 3 percent. So there’s your goals right there, in black, white and yellow.”

On maintaining diversity in the police force, Tolson, citing 2014 Census numbers, said the racial composition of York County deputies already reflects the county’s racial makeup, and that the main concern should be “listening to the needs of all the communities.”

Both candidates voiced their support for body cameras on officers, and both emphasized the importance of training when asked how they would prevent the killings of unarmed citizens during police interactions.

During his answer about the strengths of the sheriff’s office, Tolson said he’s been “gigged” repeatedly about being the son-in-law of outgoing Sheriff Bruce Bryant.

“I did a lot of those things that I listed before you without him even being my father-in-law,” he said, noting that he joined the sheriff’s office four years before Bryant was elected. “Most of those accomplishments, I accomplished before he even knew me. I like to say that my wife and I were there before he was and he should be the one that has to leave.”

Bryant announced in January that he would not seek re-election after serving 20 years in the office. The winner of the June 14 primary will likely face former York County deputy Michael Scurlock, who has filed and is collecting signatures to put his name on the ballot as an independent.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "York Co. sheriff candidates spar over ticket quotas."