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Fredericksburg police first in state to print tickets from cars Date published: 12/29/2009
BY EMILY BATTLE
The tense moments you spend sweating in your car, waiting for a police officer to write your latest traffic ticket could be fewer, thanks to a new technology Fredericksburg Police are introducing. Fredericksburg is the first locality in Virginia to install equipment in police cars that allows officers to fill out and print traffic tickets straight from their vehicles. The new system is a time-saver. It's faster for police officers in the field, and it eliminates the need for police employees to spend hours entering hand-written data into the courts computer system. That could improve accuracy, according to Robert Palmer, who oversees the technology for the Virginia Supreme Court. "The time it takes today to get a summons from the police officer into the court system takes quite a bit of data entry," he said. "If you only have to enter it once, the accuracy of the data goes up tremendously. There's no interpreting handwriting anymore." Palmer said Fredericksburg is the first locality to get the new equipment out on the streets, but several other areas are in the process of introducing it, including Augusta, Smyth and James City counties. Falls Church and Alexandria are also interested in it, he said. Thanks to a federal grant, Fredericksburg police purchased 12 printers and scanners that connect with the laptops already installed in police cars. When an officer stops a driver, he or she scans the bar code on the driver's license. That puts all of the driver's information on the ticket. The officer can then print copies on a small printer that fits between the two front seats of the police cruiser, and then take them to the offender to sign. "It's a lot faster," said Officer Tom Evans, who has been using the new system for a little more than a week. "And the courts love it because it's legible." Police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said the new equipment also saves time back at police headquarters. "We had people in our records department who spent hours out of every day manually entering information into our system," she said. "This has very much streamlined the process and completely removed the data entry portion of the workload." The electronic ticket system adds to the city's growing arsenal of electronic enforcement tools. Two years ago, Fredericksburg became the first city in the United States to use a high-tech parking enforcement system called AutoChalk. That system allows a driver to make regular rounds of parking enforcement zones in a vehicle equipped with cameras and computers that can automatically track parking violations and generate tickets that are mailed to offenders. Bledsoe said the department hopes to be able to buy electronic ticket units for every police vehicle as funds allow. Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Agreed - and that's the purpose of the Fed Grants. Basically
seed money for demonstration pilot projects. The funding is
temporary.
It will be up to the locality to decide longer term if these
things save time and money.
The Feds do this a lot. They offer start-up money for
localities that would have a hard time justifying it on their
own.
It has it's good and bad points. some would view this kind of
a thing as a temporary investment to see if it's got a
positive rate of return.. drop it if not.
I NEVER A GOT a ticket there yet. I did have a run in with one of there fine officers.And it was very sad I was coming down a back street and a little puppy came from under a car and I hit the poor thing .I stopped and tried to help it and the law was called on me. Well the coper said this.He said it was my fought because I did not wreck my bike.But if I could show him damage on my bike he would give the pet owners a ticket So i went to the station but they would not let me past the door to see his boss
...and the posts. Another repeat post mentioning the ability to enter license plate numbers into a laptop (which everyone, so far, agrees PD should have) or inferring that everyone who disagrees must be a speeding, red light running, transplanted yankee is a waste of your time and mine. Well, mine anyway. Just because it's Fed money doesn't mean we just slurp it up because we can. All these grants come from someone's taxes, and I'd rather mine be used on different PD priorities than portable printers.
Ain't arguing against plate scanners or tech, nor did I state that police don't already have laptops...in fact, don't believe I mentioned laptops anywhere. Refering to the DRIVERS license scanners and printers. The article sells this as being a time saver. Only if costs are reduced or efficiency increased. Being a federal grant, I'm willing to bet there's a PD somewhere that could have used the funds for bullet proof vests, hiring more PD, better training, etc. Even if means Fred missed out on 'free' $.
and that even includes motorcycles. I don't know what folks
are so surprised about. Every other profession has
computerized to increase productivity and now the police
are on a similar track.
I want the police to have this technology and I also want
them to have the automated license plate scanners that
instantly notify them when a "hot" plate is spotted.
I think the main folks opposed to this are the ones who tend
to get tickets anyhow.. so perhaps they have reason to be
opposed.
heh heh
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