By KEVIN LYONS
The Northwest Herald
WOODSTOCK – Awkward moments that drivers spend waiting while a police
officer scratches out a ticket in triplicate soon may be things of the past.
McHenry County Circuit Clerk Vernon Kays is buying software that will
allow police to computerize traffic tickets and communicate directly with
the clerk's office.
"It's fairly new to the market. There are about 10,000 squad cars across
the country using it right now," Kays said. "It's a lot less work. It's a
lot more efficient and a lot more accurate."
Most of the larger police agencies in McHenry County have laptop computers
in squad cars, which allows them to get information about drivers through
plate numbers and driver's license numbers.
But the new software, designed by Advanced Public Safety in Florida, also
has several other features, including one designed for officer safety.
The problem with using computer screens is that an officer has to look
away from the road while driving or away from the person stopped to read
the printed information, which could cause an accident or a chance for a
suspect to flee.
The APS program has an audio component that reads out the information
in a computerized voice so officers do not have to look at a screen.
Lake in the Hills Police Chief Jim Wales said many aspects of the computer
software will be useful for police officers, including the audio component.
"Anything you can do to keep an officer's eyes on the road is better," Wales said.
Wales said officers also are excited about how much time the computerized
system will cut from individual traffic stops. An officer merely will have
to enter a driver's license number and the violation by clicking a drop-down
screen.
The software will fill in all other data including name, address, make of car, date, and the time and place of the court date.
An officer then would make a printed copy of the electronic ticket
for the driver.
Wales estimated that the computer will save as much as four minutes for every traffic stop.
"When you're talking about 3,000 to 4,000 tickets per year, that adds up to a lot of time," he said.
Wales said that the less time officers spend writing tickets, the more time they will have to patrol and respond to calls.
Peter Tillman, a representative of APS, said use of the software has spread
to about 20 states and began in Illinois with the Des Plaines Police Department.
Tillman said the software is particularly attractive for Illinois police
because APS developed a program that automatically satisfies a requirement
of the state Legislature this year to record data from traffic stops to study
racial profiling.
"That's another set of paperwork they're having to deal with," Tillman
said. "Every city was losing patrol time because of this."
Tillman also said the program will significantly cut down on ticket errors
that can be thrown out of court for incorrect court dates or sloppy handwriting.
"Nationally, 20 percent of tickets have administrative errors," he said.
Tillman said computerized police work is the wave of the future and has
unintended benefits, such as electronic storage of data that may have other
investigative uses.
"The buzzword is in-field reporting, and this is just one aspect of it," he said.
Once officers have electronically collected ticket information, it is
downloaded to a department database and then directly transmitted to McHenry
County circuit clerk computers.
Kays said his office will pay for the $15,000 to $20,000 tab to get the
program running while local departments study whether they can afford to
use the software. He expects some departments to be functioning electronically
by late summer.
While many officers already have laptops in their squad cars, they do not have printers, which cost about $600 each.
"We are in the process of seeing how many can afford it. It's not that they don't want it," Kays said.
The circuit clerk's office also is applying for a U.S. Department of Justice
grant to see whether it can get more funding for the program.
