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November 6, 2014

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Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns

Quota plan for issuing traffic fines stirs big row

By Ni Tao | November 6, 2014, Thursday | Print Edition

A LEAKED internal police report that revealed a controversial quota plan for traffic violation fines has stirred an outcry, throwing into the spotlight a police squad in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

The secret report, divulged online by an anonymous whistleblower, detailed the number of offenses traffic police officers are expected to punish in November, along with the specified amount of fines they are supposed to collect.

This fining plan reportedly targets cyclists, motorcyclists, scooter riders and dump trucks, and such practices as driving under the influence, illegal lane changes and illegal parking.

Following the expose, commentators lashed out at the police squad and the author of the report, denouncing it for turning serious police work into a simple job to fine offenders.

A bigger worry is whether the quotas will propel officers on the ground to recklessly issue fines.

In response to criticism, the squad explained in a circular that traffic violations are commonplace in Xi’an.

It went on to say that a handful of its officers could deal with an average of 18.9 cases of illegal parking per day, apart from handling 3.7 cases of offenses involving pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles on average. So setting the targets is just a way to make sure that officers do their job.

Its justifications for quantifying and dividing the workload of officers, however, didn’t work well. On Sunday, Xi’an’s traffic police authority ordered the squad to back down and rectify its ways. It was also publicly criticized.

Ticketing is easiest

For law-enforcement teams, imposition of fines comes with the territory. But it ought to be employed as a means to ensure compliance with the rules, not as an incentive for better pay or promotion. A license for ruthless fining might lead to grave moral hazards, as police officers are tempted to mete out penalties where they are not warranted. Worse, ticketing is the easiest of all methods of law enforcement.

Anyone who has had dealings with the traffic police knows that normally they can be flexible and forgiving. Sternness could sometimes be softened by good diplomacy and tactful recognition of an infraction.

Compelling officers to focus single-mindedly on ticketing offenders not just deprives their work of subtlety, but pits them against their victims as well.

Several years back, when my father and I exited a garment market near Wujiaochang Area in Yangpu District, we found a column of cars parked on the sidewalk, including ours, each bearing a 200-yuan (US$33) ticket for illegal parking. A few steps away, a police officer was busy ticketing other motorists, regardless of the fact that there was nowhere to park but on the sidewalks and many motorists would leave shortly.

My father’s fury was palpable, but he held it back. A ticketed motorist lost his cool and cursed the policeman. The reason for this tyranny, as we suspected, was that the officer was in a rush to finish his year-end fining quotas.

That Xi’an police officers were tasked with a fining mandate is indicative of the general situation on the mainland, not just in Shanghai or Xi’an.

According to a notice released by the Ministry of Finance in 2004, non-tax revenues, including fines, can be divided, with parts going to the state coffers and parts going to the “earners.” Exactly how big a percentage the amount should be in the case of traffic fines is unclear, but at least it explains why this impulse is inherently strong.

The old measure of dividing fines among government agencies apparently needs to be overhauled, so as to dampen their thirst to levy penalties.

But a more audacious question would be: Where did all these fines — to the tunes of billions — go?

Mysteriously, despite popular calls for revelation, such information is never publicized.

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