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There are NO official quotas. However, $#!+ rolls downhill and the cop on the street lives in the valley.
It goes something like this: Tickets = Money that the town makes. The mayor tells the town manager to increase revenue. Town manager tells police chief the town council may vote him out if he doesn't increase revenue. Chief orders deputy chiefs to order the captains to increase productivity. Captains tell the lieutenants who tell the sergeants who tell the cops. So, you get one cop who goes out on his tour and doesn't make a motor vehicle stop all week because he's sent to actual calls for service and does wacky police stuff, like maybe make arrests or take burglary reports or some silliness like that. Chiefs, captains and lieutenants have weekly meeting in which the chief wants to know why Officer Smith didn't write any tickets while Officer Jones, who rarely does anything BUT vehicle stops and happens to be the chief's cousin, wrote 100 for the month. Captains yell at lieutenants, who yell at sergeants, who yell at Officer Smith, who now has to go out and write tickets or deal with the stress of being departmentally charged for every little thing he does or does not do, such as getting out of the car without his hat on or taking a coffee break for too long. So he writes tickets for NON-MOVING, NO POINT violations, such as Failure to Wear a Seatbelt or Unclear Plates, even if he himself never wears a seatbelt and has no front plate on his personal car. The result: Instead of a well-earned and very expensive speeding ticket, someone eats a fine with no points.
Sorry...had to rant a little. But that's why 'pigs' write tickets. Because they have to. It's all about the almighty dollar. Doesn't matter what time of month it is, the chief wants tickets every day. At least, that's how it is in some towns.
As for fighting an Unclear Plate ticket...good luck. It'll cost more in the long run. Pay it and be done.
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