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Police Officer Philip Sanderson uses a handheld ticketing device to write traffic citations to speed up the process and get officers off the shoulder of the road sooner.
By William Moore
Daily Journal
TUPELO – People getting a traffic citation in Tupelo might not have noticed the difference, but the Tupelo Police Department loves its electronic ticketing system.
E-tickets speed up the time it takes to fill out the citation, in turn reducing the amount of time an officer is standing on the side of the road in possible harm’s way.
TPD switched over to the electronic devices about 18 months ago. The handheld devices were issued to all of the motorcycle officers as well as the parking officers downtown. Patrol cars have a similar device attached to the computer in the car.
The device scans the back of a driver’s license to get the driver’s information. A second scan of the bar code on the car enters the Vehicle Identification Number, make, model and year of the car. The officer enters the offense and the ticket is printed on a wireless printer.
“At the end of the shift, you plug it into a docking station and it automatically uploads the citation to the court system,” said traffic officer Philip Sanderson. “We used to have to turn in copies of the citations to a deputy clerk and it could take several days to get the ticket into the system.”
Police Chief Bart Aguirre said people used to complain about not being able read the officers’ handwriting. That is a thing of the past. So is leaving a box blank. The machine automatically alerts the officer if a field is not filled in properly.
“It even has cameras built in it so if a person doesn’t have a license, we can take pictures of them while we are filling out the citation,” said Sanderson.
Since the devices are linked with the city’s database, it also will alert the officer if the driver has an outstanding arrest warrant with the Tupelo Police Department.
The device and printer cost about $1,500 per officer but have delivered time savings and made the process more efficient.
“Our guys love it,” said Aguirre. “We’ve had them a little over a year and the transition has been smooth.”
william.moore@journalinc.com