Writing a traffic citation is now as easy as clicking a few buttons, thanks to new technology.
The Frederick Police Department recently launched its new electronic ticketing system, which is designed to make issuing citations faster and more efficient, according to Sgt. Mathew Burns.
“You can just punch your fingers on a touch screen,” he said, noting that the system cuts the time it takes to write a ticket in half.
Writing a single citation used to take officers five to 10 minutes to write. It now takes about three minutes.
Housed in what looks like a giant black lunchbox, the system allows officers to scan a driver’s information versus writing it out by hand. After information is collected, a printer spits out ticket information and sends it to District Court.
“Every single thing would have to be hand-written,” Burns said.
Maryland State Police officials created the system, which is now used by several agencies statewide.
“In order to be accepted into the program, the District Court has to bless your agency,” Burns said.
After months of training and practice, officers started using the system about two weeks ago. Each officer was required to write 50 practice citations before officially using the equipment, Burns said.
The department has five portable systems; 30 more are on the way.
A $35,623 grant from the Justice Assistance Grant Program will pay for the extra units, according to department officials. Each system cost about $1,000. Eventually, every patrol officer will have a device.
“Our objective is to outfit the entire fleet,” Burns said.
Additional training for the system is scheduled for February. The department is not sure when more units will be ordered. The new technology will not prevent officers from hand-writing tickets.
“We will always have paper citations as a backup,” Burns said.
