Several months ago, the UCSD Police Department considered giving $10 gift certificates to officers for each arrest for certain types of theft and burglary. While these crimes are a serious concern, the proposed policy was flawed in its logic and implementation strategy.

This board commends the department’s creativity, but it is dangerous and counterproductive to pay officers to focus on certain areas of crime at the expense of others; the proposal instructed officers to “redirect” efforts like traffic violations to focus on property crime. Since the annual Clery Report, which publicizes campus crime rates, covers property crimes but not traffic enforcement, the proposal seems like an attempt to better official statistics, not increase police protection or make the campus safer.

We do not believe that Sgt. Tom Morris, the plan’s author, intentionally set out to harm UCSD. His idea is probably a symptom of the department’s budgetary reality: No other UC campus has fewer officers per thousand people on campus.

Police Chief Orville King, however, has a history of supporting silly policies. Last year, he offered his backing to a state bill that would allow universities to expel students for “rioting,” a clear attack on First Amendment rights, even though he acknowledged that rioting has never been a problem at UCSD. Protecting students from crime can be accomplish that through a department-focused incentive policy.

Instead of rewarding individual officers for individual arrests, the department should tie bonuses to changes in annual crime rates. Such incentives would actually align officer priorities with the department’s goal of reducing crime at UCSD. Morris’ plan would have simply rewarded questionable arrests with gift certificates.