diff --git a/zipkin-server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/zipkin/collector/processor/SamplerProcessorFilter.scala b/zipkin-server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/zipkin/collector/processor/SamplerProcessorFilter.scala
index ba972bbf35d..19e26371343 100644
--- a/zipkin-server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/zipkin/collector/processor/SamplerProcessorFilter.scala
+++ b/zipkin-server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/zipkin/collector/processor/SamplerProcessorFilter.scala
@@ -33,7 +33,10 @@ class SamplerProcessorFilter(sampler: GlobalSampler) extends ProcessorFilter[Seq
        * If the span was created with debug mode on we guarantee that it will be
        * stored no matter what our sampler tells us
        */
-      if (span.debug || sampler(span.traceId)) {
+      if (span.debug) {
+        Stats.incr("debugflag")
+        Some(span)
+      } else if (sampler(span.traceId)) {
         Some(span)
       } else {
         None