Bell memo suggests that city police turned ticketing, impounding cars into a game
A memo discovered in Bell police files appears to outline a game in which police officers compete to issue tickets, impound cars and arrest motorists.
Titled the “Bell Police Department Baseball Game,” the memo assigns “singles,” “doubles,” “triples” and “home runs” to progressively more serious infractions, starting with parking tickets and moving on to vehicle impounds and felony arrests of drivers. “Non-performers,” the memo says, are “sent for minor league rehab stint.”
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Bell police officers said in interviews in August that they often spent their shifts pulling over drivers for small infractions in the hope that they would turn out to be unlicensed. Although officers didn't look exclusively for immigrants, it was clear that the majority of the drivers pulled over turned out to be illegal immigrants, Officer Kurt Owens said in an interview in August.
“We'd look for younger guys in their 20s and 30s, guys with junkier cars, broken lights, loud music or tinted windows,” he said.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/memo-suggests-bell-police-turn-ticketing-impounding-cars-into-baseball-game.html