KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City police officer says his superiors instructed him to target minority citizens in traffic stops in an effort to meet ticket quotas that are illegal under Missouri law, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week.
Edward Williams, a Kansas City Police Department traffic cop, filed the employment discrimination lawsuit Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court. In it, he says police leaders are disobeying the law by continuing to encourage officers to meet ticket goals in the traffic unit as part of their measured performance.
Williams says he was punished for raising complaints with his commanders over the so-called ticket quotas and “potentially racially discriminatory” policing practices in predominantly Black and other racial minority neighborhoods.
