A Pennsylvania state trooper has filed a federal lawsuit against his agency and several superior officers, claiming he was mistreated after he failed to participate in what he called an illegal quota system for traffic citations.

Trooper Reginald Wells, who still works out of Troop T in Gibsonia, is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, claiming he was given bad performance reviews and denied overtime pay "due solely to his unwillingness to either meet or exceed his station's average for the issuance of traffic citations."

Since 1981, it has been illegal in Pennsylvania for the state police to enforce any kind of quota for traffic tickets.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Wells names current state police commissioner Col. Jeffrey B. Miller; former commissioner Paul J. Evanko and his troop commander, Capt. David K. Points. Trooper Wells has also sued the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, claiming the group failed to represent him adequately.

He was investigated and ultimately disciplined for sending a fax to various media outlets and state police supervisors in April 2002. In it, Trooper Wells claimed the quota system was "having an adverse effect on trooper morale; was resulting in an improper allocation of resources; resulted in an inappropriate focus on enforcement based on numbers rather than the nature of the driving behavior involved and was adversely affecting the driving public."

Mr. Wells served a five-day suspension without pay this past May for sending the fax.

He makes six claims in his lawsuit, including defamation; violation of his First Amendment right to free speech; and that his department retaliated against him in violation of the whistleblower law.

In May 2002, in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Capt. Points denied having any kind of quota system in place.