'Put some a***s in jail!' Police chief ordered ticket quota HIGHER than the number of citizens

Former cop Justin Hanners has accused Auburn police department of enforcing excessive ticket quotas

He claims officers had to make 100 contacts a month, equating to 72,000 contacts a year in a 50,000 person town

He said he was sacked after complaining and is still out of work

A whistleblower has accused an Alabama police department of forcing officers to issue an excessive number of tickets and arrest innocent people or be 'written up' - while obedient cops would get free steak dinners.



Former Auburn police officer Justin Hanners made the explosive claims in an interview with reason.tv , stating he was sacked after challenging the requirement that officers make 100 contacts a month.



He also claimed cops were ordered to hassle, ticket or arrest a specific number of people per shift - even if they were innocent - equating to 72,000 contacts a year in a 50,000 person town, including children.



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Explosive: Sacked police officer Justin Hanners has accused Auburn police of 'revenue-raising'

Whistleblower: Former police officer Justin Hanners said cops were forced to make 100 contacts a month



The Director of the City of Auburn's Public Safety Department did not return the Daily Mail's calls.

Reason.tv said the Auburn police department declined requests to be interviewed.

Hanners said morale was high when he joined the force in 2006, but that changed four years later when Tommy Dawson became Auburn police chief.



Hanners claimed Dawson introduced severe ticket quotas as a form of revenue-raising, which was enforced by officers down the chain of command.

Dawson retired from a 26-year career in May after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

'If you didn't get the number of tickets, if you didn't get the 100 contacts, you would get mandatory overtime, you'd get written up,' Hanners told reason.tv .

'But if you did do well, the officer who wrote the most tickets and the one that came in second were given gift cards for steak dinners and things like that.'



Hanners' damning claims were backed up by audio of his superior, Sergeant Trey Neal, outlining the quota system.

'Officers will have 100 contacts per month, minimum. Forty of those may be warnings for traffic,' Neal can be heard saying.

'The other 60 will be divided between traffic citations, non-traffic citations, field interviews and custodial arrests. Do not be the one that does not get 100.

'It's Saturday night. Let's go out there and make some contacts, put some asses in jail.

'Write some tickets and all that neat fun stuff we signed up to do when we signed up to do this job.'

'Revenue-raiser': Hanners accused Auburn police chief Tommy Dawson, pictured, of introducing stringent and unfair policing tactics

Hanners, a father of two, said he was 'appalled' at the quota system.

'I got into law enforcement to serve and protect, not be a bully,' he said.



'I think personally it's revenue driven. They're pushing us to get more tickets and they're telling us they don't want these little fix-it tickets.

'They want meat tickets. Something with a fine. They'll look over your traffic log and if you've got a bunch of low fine or no fine tickets, they'll tell you to switch and do more speeding, more red lights.'



But Hanners told reason.tv quotas were also shockingly met through arrests of innocent people.

The father of two detailed how he and his partner once approached a man who appeared intoxicated.



Although the man turned out to be lucid, Hanners said his supervising officer who witnessed the 'contact' told him to arrest the man for public intoxication to make up numbers.

'He pointed to me and said you need it for your stats. I told him it's not about what I need it's about what he needs and he doesn't need to go to jail,' Hanners said.



'So he got out of the car and ordered us to arrest him. I still refused. But my partner, scared for his job, went ahead and arrested the guy for public intoxication.'

Complaint: Hanners said he was sacked after filing a 'grievance' in November

Unemployed: Hanners said he was the 'breadwinner' for his young family before he was forced out of the police force

Furious at the system, Hanners last year filed a grievance.

He said he repeatedly voiced his concerns through his chain of command, and the department said the requirements were necessary to increase productivity.

He was sacked shortly after.



'I had no intention of dropping it [my complaint],' Hanners said.



'This is a problem in more places than Auburn, and I think once the people know that they can hold their public officials accountable, it’ll change.'

Reason.tv stated Hanners is unemployed and is preparing to sue the department.

According to City of Auburn council meeting minutes from August 2, 2011 , Mayor Bill Ham presented Hanners with a five-year service pin for his work with the Public Safety Department.





