The chief of the Arlington County Police Department denied today that his officers have to meet monthly arrest and traffic ticket quotas in the wake of a memo written earlier this month suggesting that is in fact the case.

“There is no month-to-month, or day-to-day numeric quota system for our officers,” Douglas Scott said outside police headquarters this afternoon, WTOP reported.

But the March 1 memo, which was obtained by WUSA, asked Arlington patrol officers to meet “monthly proactivity expectations” of criminal arrests, traffic infractions and parking violations:

Day shifts (A-Squad/B-Squa)

Arrests – 3, Field Observation Reports, – 3, Traffic Summons – 28 (maximum 25% warnings) Parking Citations – 15

Evening shifts (C-Squad/D-Squad)

Arrests – 7, Field Observation Reports – 5, Traffic Summons – 30 (maximum 25% warnings), Parking Citations – 5

Midnight shifts (E-Squad/F-Squad)

Arrests – 7, DUI – 1, Field Observation Reports – 3, Traffic Summons – 16 (maximum 25% warnings), Parking citations – 5.

The memo dances around the term “quota,” but the effect seems all the same. At his press conference today, Scott told reporters he had retracted the memo, but defended the need to have standardized expectations for his officers.

“I do believe that the public realizes that it is reasonable for us to have performance expectations for our officers. However, citing specific squad averages, benchmarks or targets leads to confusion about quotas,” he said according to WTOP.