Month: April 2020

E-ticket systems and mobile printers continue to evolve to take advantage of technology. The best e-ticket systems use Bluetooth wireless technology or Wi-Fi to provide seamless continuity and integration between the electronic citations issued by police officers in the field and processing by the city or county clerk and the courts.

Today’s advanced e-citation solutions allow officers to conduct quick, on-the-spot database searches for traffic violations or criminal offenses. In addition to digitally capturing the driver’s signature, photo or fingerprint, many e-citation solutions can immediately transmit citation data wirelessly to your police agency’s record management system or the court system.

Most e-citation systems work like this: scan the driver’s license barcode, auto-populate the citation form, print the citation for the motorist, and then electronically send the citation to the courthouse. They also include the same basic components: a mobile printer, software, barcode scanner and a smart device such as a phone, laptop, tablet or handheld computer.

Here are some benefits of e-ticket systems from a recent PoliceOne.com interview with Gary Reichle of Brother Mobile Solutions.

What measurable benefits can the right e-citation system deliver?

Gary Reichle: Several have been documented. For example, e-citation systems can increase officer safety by decreasing dangerous radside time writing tickets where officers are exposed to oncoming traffic. Also, significant quantities of handwritten tickets are dismissed due to illegibility, which nationally, can add up to millions of dollars in lost revenue every year.

In addition, by dramatically reducing the administrative cost of issuing and processing citations while also increasing revenue collection, law enforcement agencies can see a fast return on their e-citation solution investment. As public agencies and municipalities face increased pressure to do more with less, that matters more than ever.

Where The Traffic Ticket Money Goes

So where do your fines for a traffic ticket go to? Most people suspect their ticket fines are some kind of bonus for cities and counties. Well the truth is a bit different.

In Oakland, CA, for example, traffic citation revenue helps pay for public libraries, county law libraries, court funding units, local units of government, counties, local law enforcement agencies, and the Justice System Fund.

How the money from the example of a $115 speeding ticket is spent is a little complicated because it depends on whether the speeding was a violation of state statute or local ordinance.

If the ticket is written under state statute, the $75 goes to the local or county treasurer and then to local or county libraries.

If the ticket was written under local ordinance, the $75 is divided. One-third, or $25, goes to the political unit where the violation occurred, and two-thirds, or $50, goes to the court.

And then there’s the Justice System Assessment of $40 that goes to the state’s Justice System Fund.