l Opponents of Ogden's ticket quota have adorned a moving van with banners saying: “Welcome to Ogden. Home of Mayor Godfrey's ticket quota. Drive carefully” and “Ticket Ogden,” with the word “Ticket” replacing the crossed-out word “Lift,” a reference to a group that backs Mayor Godfrey's idea for a gondola. The van has been parked in different sites around town.

OGDEN - Police officers here are rallying behind a colleague they believe was placed on administrative leave in retaliation for criticizing Mayor Matthew Godfrey and the city's policy that ties pay raises to writing tickets.

Officer Matt Jones was placed on leave Thursday night, two hours after he was linked by Godfrey to a van with signs protesting ticket quotas.

Godfrey saw Jones' wife, Colette Jones, park the van in front of the Municipal Building.

Police Chief Jon Greiner said Monday that it was only coincidental that Jones was put on leave the same night.

Jones, he said, had been under investigation on two other complaints and the investigator, a deputy chief, had delivered a status report Thursday. Greiner said he had intended to put Jones on leave earlier in the day but forgot.

Troy Burnett, the patrol sergeant who supervises Jones, said he doesn't buy that there is no connection.

“It stinks to high heaven,” said Burnett. “My gut feeling and my entire being says there are lies being told here, and not by lowly officers, but by city administrators.”

“Officer Jones has been put on the chopping block, and it's not fair,” said Shawn Grogan, a Ogden police detective assigned to the narcotics task force.

“They've told us we don't have freedom of speech at the workplace. Now it looks like they're pushing that to off-duty and your family members, as well.”

A large group of officers, firefighters and citizens chipped in about 10 days ago to rent a moving van adorned with banners blaming Godfrey for a new pay-raise policy, which the City Council also approved and which many officers say takes away their discretion and shifts their attention away from deterring crime to writing traffic tickets.

Under the new policy, officers and firefighters must score higher than other city employees on a performance scale to get 5 percent merit raises.

Officers can improve their performance ratings by writing more tickets.

The group has surreptitiously moved the van around the city, parking it in particularly ticket-rich areas.

On Thursday night, Colette Jones had just moved the van to a parking spot in front of the Municipal Building when a car pulled alongside her, and the driver - later identified as the mayor by her husband - smiled and shook his head at her, she said Monday.

She began walking toward her husband, who was parked in their personal car nearby in the city lot and conversing with her by cell phone.

When her husband saw that it was Godfrey who had pulled alongside his wife, he pulled out of the lot and the mayor followed behind in his car, she said Monday.

Her husband picked her up.

About two hours later, a lieutenant and sergeant came to their home and took Jones' car, gun, badge, duty belt and radio.

He continues to be paid for his police work but loses about $200 worth of security work each week.

“No matter what the mayor says . . . there is no way he can convince me that those two incidents are not related,” Colette Jones said.

Godfrey did not immediately return telephone calls, but Greiner confirmed that the mayor had called him Thursday night after seeing Colette Jones and recognizing the driver waiting for her as an officer.

Godfrey did not know the officer's name, however, and gave Greiner a license plate number.

Greiner said he called police dispatch to ask that the car license number be run through the registration database.

“[If] I have a potential of an officer not acting professionally, I have a duty to figure that out,” Greiner said.

When it turned out the car was registered to Jones, “The name reminded me I hadn't finished what was going on that day,” Greiner said. So he sent a lieutenant to notify Jones of the administrative leave late Thursday evening, he said.

The chief said that on Friday he assigned another investigator to determine whether Jones and the Ogden Police Benefit Association have been involved with the van.

A representative of the association recently told him the group is not involved, and Greiner wants to know if he lied, he said.

Ogden's attorney recently sent an e-mail to all city employees advising them they are not allowed to speak ill of the city while on the job.

But Greiner said he considers it a “gray” area whether officers' off-duty free-speech rights are broad enough to allow public criticism such as those carried by the moving van.

“There's an expectation of the public that officers aren't involved in certain things,” Greiner said.

But Grogan and Burnett said officers should not lose their right to free speech when off the job.

“It's apparently who you criticize that matters,” said Burnett.

“What they have to realize is there were a lot of people involved. Are they going to punish everybody?” asked Grogan.