Police seek e-ticketing devices

Marianne Refuerzo
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

Anyone who has received a traffic ticket knows that deciphering the handwriting on the citation can be nearly as painful as the potential fine. But one of the Valley's smallest police forces is looking to revolutionize the archaic process.

The Tolleson Police Department is pursuing new technology to make ticket writing easier, faster and more accurate, something that benefits everyone on the ticketing chain: the motorist, the officer and the courts.

The department is applying for a grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety to purchase three handheld devices from a Florida-based company called Advanced Public Safety Inc.

The devices, called PocketCitations, scan the black strip on the back of a driver's license and register all of the driver's information, such as name and address. That way, the officer doesn't have to write it by hand on a notepad.

"It's going to improve our efficiency and limit our errors," Tolleson Police Chief Lawrence Rodriguez said.

The department is asking for $45,742 to buy the equipment and should learn whether it gets the grant this fall. There are 26 officers on the Tolleson force, so they would have to share the devices.

If awarded the money, Tolleson would be the first police department in the Valley to use the devices. Elsewhere in the state, Tucson implemented the automated citations in August and the town of Oro Valley recently purchased eight units.

The Tucson Police Department has 45 handheld computers with motor officers in the field. The Tucson City Court paid about $250,000 for the equipment and software. The court also has two of the devices for its use.

When pulling someone over, a Tucson officer scans the driver's license and all the information appears on the screen of the handheld devices. There are drop-down menus, similar to a personal digital assistant, where the officer can input the vehicle information and the violation.

The ticket comes out on a small printer and officers send the information to the Tucson courts at the end of the day.

"The information is a lot cleaner and the violators get a ticket that they can actually read instead of trying to translate it," Tucson police Sgt. Steve Wheelersaid. "I think it's a win-win for everyone in the city, even for the citizens who are unfortunate enough to get a citation."

About 17 percent of Tucson police citations were getting returned from the court before the department implemented the system because they were filled out incorrectly or were illegible. That number has since dropped to less than 1 percent, Wheeler said.

This frees up time for data-entry court employees to do other things, he said.

"It is working really well," Wheeler said of the system.

The Agua Fria Justice Court in Tolleson cannot afford to purchase equipment to receive the information from the handheld devices, as Tucson does, according to a Maricopa County courts spokesperson. The Tolleson Police Department will continue to manually send citation information to the courts.

The Tucson force also bought its equipment from Advanced Public Safety, which specializes in technology to help public-safety officers, including firefighters and paramedics.

According to Advanced, about 20 percent of traffic citations in the United States are dismissed because of incorrect numbers or other errors.

In addition, the company sells global positioning satellite systems to track public-safety vehicles and voice-recognition computers for officers to run information on license plates without having to take their eyes off the road.