Memo: Troopers ordered on ticket blitz

An e-mail from police Lieutenant Anthony Schirillo urging troopers to hand out more tickets. An e-mail from police Lieutenant Anthony Schirillo urging troopers to hand out more tickets. Photo: Contributed Photo: Contributed Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Memo: Troopers ordered on ticket blitz 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

An eye-opening State Police internal memorandum obtained by WTNH News 8 challenges state troopers in one barracks to out-perform their trooper colleagues in other barracks by writing hundreds of tickets on Friday.

The memo, distributed at Troop I in Bethany by Lt. Anthony Schirillo, a Stratford resident, and obtained exclusively by News 8, basically lays down the gauntlet and any driver on a state highway is fair game.

According to this document, starting Friday at midnight, patrols will be stepped up. The memo from Schirillo says in part: "...we have to issue at least 60 infractions / Misdemeanors each shift for a total of 180 infractions in order to outperform both Troop F and Troop G. ... One day Troop F issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 in one day. We can do better...

"I am asking that everyone, myself included, contribute to this effort...," said Schirillo, a former commander at Troop G in Bridgeport who was transferred to Troop I in December. "NOTE if we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day that would be stellar."

News 8 spoke at length with Lt. J. Paul Vance, spokesman for the state police. In response to the allegation that this is a quota system, which the state police union alleges, Vance said no one is given a quota, this is not a game, they don't do that and have never done that.

Schirillo also works as the town of Stratford's emergency management director. He serves as the liaison between the mayor's office and the emergency services, local businesses, cities and towns and the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in emergencies.

Jamie Muro is a reporter at WTNH News 8.