Is This a Quota?

From the comments:

• 26may08 - 008 3rd watch - Lt. Carson E. does a stand-up roll call/inspection on Memorial Day against G.O. Lt. C.E. then asks one P.O. "where is your hat?" and the P.O responds, "in my car." Lt. C.E. they tells P.O. to go get it. The entire watch stands at attention while P.O. makes the trip across 63rd st to get his hat. While P.O. is gone Lt. C.E. relates to the watch that the reason for the holiday inspection is punishment because on the previous day 25may, bt. 822 turned in their humper (daily activity log) with no activity. He then carries on to say that he personally gave Bt 822 a command to pick up activity because aldermen were beefing to which Bt. 822 did nothing.
  
  27may08 - 008 3rd watch - Lt. Carson E. passes out new updated humpers (daily activity logs) to all beat and rapid cars and relates that officers must complete them every single day or suffer serious consequences. He then tells the entire watch that they must increase their activity in order to stay on their cars. He says that he will personally check to see that nobody puts bullshit numbers on the humpers. He concludes by saying that activity is way down on 3rd watch and that it is not going to be tolerated.

An acting watch commander demanding "activity" in front of an entire roll call worth of witnesses? Could you define the "activity" desired lieutenant?

• Tickets? We don't have a ticket quota - or at least that's what the City, Union and everyone seem to agree on publicly. Is that curtain finally falling?
• Arrests? Is the watch being ordered to violate civil rights of persons engaged in their constitutionally protect rights to assemble, gather and flash gang signs on street corners? J-Fed has already proven that he'll refer anything he feels isn't punished enough to his buddies over at the US Attorneys Office. The loss of a start time or a car doesn't seem like a big deal compared to a few years in the Federal joint.
• Contact Cards? That would involve contact with the public and having contact with citizens leads to accusations of verbal abuse, physical restraint and questions about professionalism. And a contact card (which Monique says is exactly like a warning ticket, despite the fact Chicago has never had "warning tickets") just proves that you actually met your accuser. Since IPRA and J-Fed are looking to hang coppers, it's like cutting your own throat.
  
• Event numbers? Oh, we got plenty of those. We drive by all sorts of spots and get those. We get to use the radio! If we close our eyes and hold our noses, we can almost imagine we're driving a car with under 147,000 miles, no smell of dead ass, windows that keep the rain out and a slightly used rifle in the trunk - you know, like a professional department.

This is what passes for leadership nowadays - blanket punishment of an entire watch, demands to violate Department policy, threats to remove people from assignments. Way to motivate the troops!

UPDATE: Some of our more "brilliant" readers are missing the point. The point isn't lack of activity - it was a complete lack of ability to motivate activity out of the watch officers and resorting to that time honored tradition of bullies everywhere - threats - which time and time again never ever works. Especially on cops.