After receiving national attention in the last 72 hours, the City of Auburn has responded to allegations of a quota system from a former APD officer.
In an article released Wednesday, July 24, former officer Justin Hanners told libertarian magazine Reason that he was required to make 100 contacts--arrests, tickets, field interviews and warnings--per month after the recently retired Tommy Dawson became chief in 2010.
Hanners, who joined the force in 2006, was fired in January 2013. He claims he was fired for speaking out against the quota system.
In a recent interview with the Opelika-Auburn News, Dawson, who retired from the APD last month, denied the existence of the quota system and said no one had been fired over not issuing a certain number of tickets.
"You don't get terminated just because you don't have a certain amount of citations," Dawson said. "(Hanners) knows why he was dismissed and we'll leave it at that."
The City of Auburn also released a statement addressing the allegations.
"Unfortunately, a former Police Officer who was terminated from employment with the City of Auburn over three months ago has made false and unsubstantiated allegations surrounding the Auburn Police Division and the basis for his termination," City Manager Charlie Duggan said in the statement. "Although Mr. Hanners and his former counsel have a copy of his personnel file, which contains the basis of his termination, it is evident that he has not chosen to share that information with the media."
Duggan said the message of a quota was "wrongfully conveyed through supervisory channels" to at least one of the APD's patrol shifts.
"Chief Register, as well as former Chief Dawson, have made it clear that they do not require quotas in the Auburn Police Division," Duggan said.
According to Duggan, an almost 700-hour investigation by Bob Eddy, assistant director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, was conducted when allegations of corruptions were first made in the APD.
"Mr. Eddy conducted an almost 700-hour investigation, including exhaustive interviews with Auburn Police personnel and found no corruption or wrongdoing," Duggan said.
Hanners's six minute interview with Reason was posted on the magazine's YouTube channel Wednesday, and as of Friday evening, it already had over 180,000 views.
"When I first heard about the quotas I was appalled," Hanners told the magazine. "I got into law enforcement to serve and protect, not be a bully."
Hanners gave Reason what he claimed were recordings of one of his superiors outlining the quota system and telling officers "don't be the one who doesn't get 100."
"It's Saturday night," Sergeant Trey Neal is allegedly recorded as saying. "Let's go out there and make some contacts, put some a---s in jail. Write some tickets and all that neat fun stuff we signed up to do when we signed up to do this job."
According to Hanners, who joined the force in 2006, 100 contacts per month for each officer come out to about 72,000 a year for the entire division. The population of Auburn is 56,902, according to the latest U.S. Census.
"There are not that many speeders, there are not that many people running red lights to get those numbers, so what (the police) do is they lower their standards," Hanners told the magazine.
Hanners, an Air Force veteran and Auburn resident, filed a grievance on the quotas in November 2012.
Reason says Hanners is still unemployed and plans to sue the APD.
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