Lawmakers who banned police quotas to demand answers from Utah DWR

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

To watch the first installment, click here ; for the second, click here .

SALT LAKE CITY — For the past month, wildlife officers who are afraid of retaliation have been revealing how they've figured out ways to inflate their numbers.
"It's no longer about catching bad people doing bad things, but doing things in an effort to justify the numbers to meet the quota," said one former officer.

The story has caught the attention of state lawmakers. They're now getting ready to demand answers from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

For the past year, wildlife officers have been required to document one violation of the law every 23 hours.

Police quotas have been illegal in Utah since 2018.

DWR is trying to convince the public its new "performance goal" is not an illegal quota.

FOX 13 News has spoken with twelve lawmakers about the issue. Some of them asked to not be quoted as they learn more and work on a solution behind the scenes.

Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Mountain Green, said she will be summoning DWR to answer questions before the Administrative Rules Review and General Oversight Committee.

"Why do we want to keep pumping more money out of the citizens of our state? They're being taxed enough already!" Birkeland said. "(Officers) have to meet a certain goal. Quota? Goal? Whatever you want to call it? It’s an issue."

Sen. David Hinkins, R-Ferron, voted in favor of the quota ban in 2018. He thanked FOX 13 News for looking into officers' concerns.

"What I'd like to see is DWR protect our wildlife," Hinkins said. "If it's a quota system? We're totally against that."

Several drivers have also come forward. Many of them said they were surprised to get pulled over by DWR pickup trucks on the freeway.

Russel Simper, who lives in Provo, is contesting the speeding ticket he received in April. He recorded his interaction with the game warden on his cell phone.

"I was really confused," he said. "I had no idea they were able to pull you over on the freeway."

Watch: DWR Officer James Thomas pulls over Russel Simper

"To me, it seemed more like (the wildlife officer) was acting as a state trooper, pulling people over on the highway," said Mike Pellegrino of St. George, who also received a speeding ticket this year.
Birkeland said she has heard similar stories from one of her own constituents, a young kid who just returned to Utah from his LDS mission.

"He was going, he claims, 6mph over (the limit)," Birkeland said. "He didn’t know that he could be pulled over by a game warden."

Crime has more than doubled since the "performance goal" was implemented.

DWR traffic stops on the freeway have tripled since 2021.

"If it looks like a quota? It probably is!" Hinkins said. "(These officers) go into that occupation thinking that they're going to do one thing, and they end up doing another? It’s not fair to our state employees."

Game wardens are not equipped with any speed-detecting equipment in their trucks.

Instead, they use their own speedometers to estimate another driver's speed — also known as "pacing" a vehicle.

"If our officers aren’t equipped for it? I don’t think we should be having them do it," Hinkins said. "If you were a single woman being pulled over off on some desolate road, you’d wonder what the hell is going on! I don’t think that that’s appropriate."

DWR's date with the Legislature will not be the first case of a police agency being questioned about its ticketing practices.

In 2023, Chief Eric Young of Ogden PD was required to answer questions about his "point system," which rewards officers with points based on the number of tickets they write.

He said the goal of the policy is to hold officers accountable, not to raise money for the city.

• Police quotas are illegal, but Ogden says it has a ‘point system’ instead

• Emails reveal Ogden Police Department's ticket-for-revenue strategy

• 110+ Utah police agencies say they don’t use quotas or point-based evaluations

"I don't know what the revenue is," Young said, "and I don't care!"

According to data from the Utah State Auditor, Ogden received more revenue per capita in the 2022 fiscal year from fines and forfeitures than any other large city in Utah.

Some lawmakers, like Birkeland, left that meeting more convinced than ever that Ogden PD was running an illegal quota.

Jason Chipman, the director of government affairs for Libertas Institute, said he expects the same thing will happen with DWR.

"It's a way to gather numbers rather than being effective in what they're supposed to be doing," Chipman said.

Libertas is an organization that works with lawmakers to pass libertarian bills . The institute had a major role in the 2018 ban on police quotas.

Chipman said the goal was to help officers build trust with the community they police.

He believes departments like DWR are soiling their reputations and ruining morale with rank-and-file officers.

"In order to get more food on the table for your kids? You're going to have to take food off the table for somebody else's kids," Chipman explained. "It's just a waste a resources. We already have people out there 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.

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, and Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, attempted to strengthen the quota ban in 2024.

• Bipartisan bill to remove funding from Ogden PD if it continues ‘illegal quota’

Clarifying the ban on quotas appeared to have widespread bipartisan support, but the bill never made it out of Utah's House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

Some lawmakers blamed the chair of that committee for single-handedly killing the bill.