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New device is just the ticket, officers say By Gary Taylor | Sentinel Staff Writer
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS -- Several Altamonte Springs police
officers have a new high-tech gadget and people are paying anywhere from
$60 to several hundred dollars to get a close look at it. Although the PocketCitation has a name that sounds like it came right out of a television infomercial, it doesn't slice, dice or even make perfect rice. It can, however, crank out a traffic citation in less than a minute, delivering a product that is easy to read and free of the common errors that invalidate as many as a fifth of all traffic tickets written by police. "This is going to make our job safer," said Patrol Officer Dom Carbonaro, one of 10 officers who were issued PocketCitations. "It's also going to make our job a little easier." Advanced Public Safety Inc. of Deerfield Beach introduced the PocketCitation less than a year ago, and orders are flowing in from around the nation, said Jack Siney, a company vice president. The El Paso, Texas, Police Department ordered more than 200 units, he said. Altamonte Springs, which paid $3,500 for each of its devices, has been using them for about a month. The only other Central Florida agency using the PocketCitation is Winter Garden, though the company is in discussions with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department, Siney said. Siney credits the popularity of the device with the fact that police officers helped design it. It is more user-friendly than similar devices that have been on the market for about two years, he said. Before the end of the year, Advanced Public Safety expects to have software available that will enable police officers to use the handheld PocketCitation for accessing information that is now retrieved through computers mounted in patrol cars. The PocketCitation works mainly off the magnetic stripe that's on the back of driver's licenses. That stripe contains the holder's name, address and date of birth. Officers swipe a license through the device to enter the information electronically. About 90 percent of Florida motorists have licenses with magnetic stripes, but even for those with old licenses, the machine makes ticket writing faster, Officer Darin Farber said. Gary Taylor can be reached at 407-324-7293 or gtaylor@orlandosentinel.com. |
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