He says it’s not a quota, but Boston Police Superintendent Robert Dunford is requiring officers to increase the number of parking and traffic tickets issued in the city.

Dunford told The Boston Globe that his new directive – which he gave to police captains at a meeting last week – is not a quota system, since it doesn’t require specific numbers of tickets.

“This is just basic community policing,” he said.

Dunford also denied that the mandatory ticket increase was designed to help lagging police revenues. Instead, he pointed out a drastic drop in the number of tickets issued in the city from more than 12,000 in June to about 9,100 in September.