Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the small town of Diamond for allegedly using traffic ticket quotas to generate revenue.
The town of fewer than 1,000 residents is located near Joplin in the southwestern corner of the state.
The City of Diamond's police chief, Michael Jones, wrote on a white board that the city was $5,000 behind and instructed officers to issue tickets "RFN," an acronym that a whistleblower believed to include profanity and to mean immediately, Schmitt's office alleges in its lawsuit.
Ticket quotas are illegal in Missouri.
The practice was banned following the unrest in Ferguson over the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. Minorities in Ferguson pointed out that that city's police department was mostly white, and that it was accused of using traffic fines and court fees to raise revenue.