ACLU Alleges Traffic Stop Quotas, Cranston Police Fire Back

CRANSTON, RI — The Cranston Police Department and American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island squared off Monday over an alleged traffic stop quota policy. After the organization released a scathing public letter, the department fired back, saying it was "inaccurate" and "misleading."

The letter called for Mayor Kenneth Hopkins and the City Council to "take immediate action to halt what appears to be a long-standing and flagrant violation of the law by the Cranston Police Department," saying that officers were required to stop at least two cars per shift. The ACLU claimed that internal police department emails obtained by the organization discussed a "two car stop" mandate for officers.

"To see a police department brazenly violate the law in this manner is unconscionable," the letter stated in part. "When police are put in the position of choosing which cars to pull over merely for the sake of meeting an arbitrary quota, rather than for a legitimate public safety need, it can only encourage discriminatory treatment of motorists."

The ACLU also said it reached out to Cranston Police Chief Michael Winquist earlier this year, but never received a response.

Later that day, the police department issued its response, saying the ACLU's letter was "replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods."

"It is accurate that there has been a long-standing directive in place that patrol officers perform the fundamental and vital practice of traffic enforcement by initiating two traffic stops during their eight-hour patrol shift," Winquist said in a statement. "It has been made clear to all of our officers and is codified in policy that enforcement is to be done impartially and for observable violations of Rhode Island traffic laws."

Winquist went on to say that the traffic stops are different from "investigative stops," which are done based on reasonable suspicion that a crime was committed.

"Officers focus on flagrant traffic violations that pose a serious risk to the motoring public," the statement continued. "Officers have complete discretion on the decision to issue a traffic citation or a warning. There is no expectation or requirement that an officer must issue two traffic tickets during their shift, which would violate the Rhode Island General law regarding the prohibition of ticket quotas."

The Cranston police statement went on to say that the ACLU mischaracterized the law regarding traffic stops, passed in 2010, saying that ACLU Director Steven Brown "attempt[ed] somehow to correlate our commitment to traffic enforcement to racial profiling."