Lawmakers who banned police quotas demand answers from Utah DWR

This story is part three of a three-part series.

To watch the first part, click on Here; for the second click on Here.

SALT LAKE CITY — Over the past month, wildlife officials, fearful of retaliation, have revealed how they have found ways to inflate their numbers.
“It’s no longer about catching bad people doing bad things, it’s about doing things to justify the numbers and meet the quota,” said a former official.

The story has caught the attention of state lawmakers, who are now preparing to demand answers from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

For a year now, gamekeepers have been required to document a violation of the law every 23 hours.

Since 2018, police quotas have been illegal in Utah.

DWR is trying to convince the public that its new “performance target” is not an illegal quota.

FOX 13 News spoke with 12 lawmakers about the issue, some of whom asked not to be quoted as they learn more and are working behind the scenes to find a solution.

Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland of Mountain Green said she would subpoena DWR to answer questions before the Administrative Rules Review and General Oversight Committee.

“Why do we want to take more and more money out of the pockets of our state’s citizens? They are already taxed enough!” Birkeland said. “(Officials) have to achieve a certain goal. Quota? Target? Whatever you want to call it? It’s a problem.”

Senator David Hinkins (R-Ferron) voted for the quota ban in 2018. He thanked FOX 13 News for addressing officers’ concerns.

“I want DWR to protect our wildlife,” Hinkins said. “And if it’s a quota system? We’re totally against that.”

Several drivers have also come forward. Many of them said they were surprised when they were stopped on the highway by DWR pickup trucks.

Provo resident Russel Simper is fighting a speeding ticket he received in April by recording his conversation with the game warden on his cellphone.

“I was really confused,” he said. “I had no idea they could stop you on the highway.”

Watch: DWR Officer James Thomas stops Russel Simper

Russel Simper vs DWR

“It seemed to me more like (the game warden) was acting as a police officer, stopping people on the highway,” said Mike Pellegrino of St. George, who also received a speeding ticket this year.
Birkeland said she had heard similar stories from one of her own constituents, a young boy who had just returned from his LDS mission to Utah.

“He claims he was driving 6 miles per hour too fast,” Birkeland said. “He didn’t know a game warden could pull him over.”

Crime has more than doubled since the implementation of the “performance target”.

The DWR traffic control points on the motorway have tripled since 2021.

“If it looks like a quota? It probably is!” Hinkins said. “(These officers) go into the profession thinking they’re going to do one thing and they end up doing something else? That’s not fair to our public servants.”

The gamekeepers’ trucks are not equipped with speed measuring devices.

Instead, they use their own speedometer to estimate the speed of another driver – this is also known as “pacing” a vehicle.

“If our officers aren’t equipped to do this? I don’t think we should let them do this,” Hinkins said. “If you were a single woman stopped on a deserted road, you would wonder what the hell is going on! I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

DWR-Tempo

The DWR’s meeting with Parliament will not be the first time a police force has been questioned about its traffic ticket practices.

In 2023, Police Chief Eric Young of the Ogden PD had to answer questions about his “point system,” which rewards officers with points based on the number of tickets they issue.

He said the goal of the measure was to hold officials accountable, not to raise money for the city.

“I don’t know what the revenue is,” said Young, “and I don’t care!”

According to the Utah State Auditor General, Ogden generated more per capita revenue from fines and seizures in fiscal year 2022 than any other major city in Utah.

Some lawmakers, including Birkeland, left the meeting more convinced than ever that the Ogden Police Department was pursuing an illegal quota.

Jason Chipman, director of government affairs at the Libertas Institute, expects the same thing to happen with DWR.

“This is a way of collecting numbers rather than effectively doing the job,” Chipman said.

Libertas is an organization that works with lawmakers to pass libertarian legislation. The institute played a key role in the abolition of police quotas in 2018.

Chipman said the goal is to help officers build trust in the community they serve.

He believes that departments like DWR are tarnishing their reputation and destroying the morale of rank-and-file officers.

“To put more food on the table for your kids, you have to take food away from other people’s kids,” Chipman explained. “That’s a complete waste of resources. We already have people patrolling the highways, and we should allow them to do their jobs.”

The Utah Highway Patrol is aware of DWR’s performance goal, but the agency has chosen not to comment.

Senator Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross) and Representative Jennifer Dailey-Provost (D-Salt Lake City) sought to tighten the quota ban in 2024.

A clarification of the quota ban apparently found bipartisan support, but the bill never made it past the Utah House of Representatives Committee on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.

Some MPs accused the committee chairman of single-handedly bringing down the law.