Former Metro Transit Police officers testified before the D.C. Council that they were pressured to meet a certain amount of tickets and arrests, calling it a quota system.
They said they faced retaliation if they failed to generate that amount of tickets.
“If you do make a complaint, you’re basically blackballed,” said Tiffany Washington, who served for 18 years.
She said she is trying to speak for current officers.
“I’ve sat down and I’ve talked to members who have faced the same thing, and it’s like I’m looking in the mirror,” she said. “I see their eyes water up. They lose their jobs.”
Benston Andrew, who said he was fired by the department for speaking up, described how the so-called quota system worked.
“If I have to meet the numbers, I can write somebody out of state a ticket, somebody who’s not really aware of the Metro system and how the fare system works,” he said.
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Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik only acknowledged his department uses what he calls performance metrics.
“Part of our performance objectives include arrests and citations, so we work in a very unique environment,” he said.
Council members are asking for an external complaint department to log complaints against the Metro Transit Police Department.
