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A related question about police quotas suggests there are quotas (some openly, some not) in some jurisdictions.

This Venture Beat Article strongly suggests that more tickets are issued at the end of each month, as police officers try to meet their quotas.

The data certainly shows a lumpiness. It doesn’t show an average number of tickets issued on each day or in each week. In fact, the date shows more tickets issued near the end of the month — and the beginning of the month.

There's a Hacker News discussion, in which these statistics are challenged

Warning, bad science! Looking at the last plot, you can't conclude that police give out more tickets at the end of the month, unless you also conclude that police like to give out tickets around the 8th, and don't like to give out tickets around the 11th of each month. Problem is, there are no error bars, if there were, it'd probably show that there is no significant evidence for the hypothesis. The error of the mean of the last plot is probably comparable to the signal itself.

Are there higher quality studies to examine this question?

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    @GEdgar I would be interested in both "speeding tickets" and "parking tickets", and the distinction is in that those tickets are given - most of the time people are not given a movie ticket or a lottery ticket, since those are bought instead. Also, the police tag should make it clear enough. Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 16:55
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    I've heard that quota's do exist for parking tickets when they are written out by private companies. But then its get the minimum at the beginning of the month and no more after. Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 19:29
  • Thanks for trying to improve the question, but we need a notable claim. Do many people believe there are more tickets issues at the end of the month, or is it just your speculation?
    – Oddthinking
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 8:29
  • If you get your salary at the end of the month and the go out partying it would probably more tickets for that reason. I have seen curves over prio 1 ambulance transports and they go up at the end of the month.
    – liftarn
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 10:50

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