By Paula Horton
Tri-City Herald
KENNEWICK, Wash. — The Washington State Patrol has gone green in the Tri-Cities.
Troopers have tossed aside the usual practice of writing tickets on paper and now they can issue electronic tickets with just a couple of quick clicks on a computer.
Troopers in Benton and Franklin counties have been filing e-tickets through SECTOR -- Statewide Electronic Collision & Ticket Online Records -- for about five months.
The new technology lets officers scan barcodes on driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations to immediately input information, such as name, address, birthdate and vehicle make and model.
“It works almost like a scanner at a grocery store,” Sgt. Zach Elmore said. “They just scan the license and scan the registration and it automatically enters everything on a citation. ... Then all the trooper has to do is go down to the violation area and hit a violation.”
When everything’s filled out, the trooper hits “print,” gives a copy of the ticket to the driver and sends him back on his way in no time.
At the end of the shift, the trooper downloads the data and the infraction information is sent to the appropriate court.
It also works for collision reports, which are sent to a supervisor for approval and then on to the state Department of Transportation’s collision data center.
“Essentially what we’ve done is gone paperless or try to go paperless,” said Elmore. “The state patrol is a little green.”
It also saves time and money.
Jacki Lahtinen, court administrator for Benton County District Court, raves about the benefits of the e-ticket filing.
Clerks now can process tickets for court in a fraction of the time that it would take them to input all the data, she said. All they have to do is download the data, click through five or six screens and the infraction is recorded in the court system.
“Savings in time is the biggest benefit,” Lahtinen said. “Another is accuracy. Officers can’t make a mistake in the RCW or the amount of the fine. They (automatically) have the current Department of Licensing personal information. ... We’re not seeing the errors.”
Kelly Martin, court administrator for Franklin County District Court, said the system has gone smoothly so far. Both district courts have been accepting e-tickets since about June.
“It’s a lot faster because we don’t have to wait for a ticket to come through a messenger,” Martin said. “And it’s really nice not to have to read bad handwriting.”
In addition to the troopers in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties, deputies with the Benton and Franklin county sheriff’s offices are set up to submit tickets electronically.
Two traffic units and one marked patrol car with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office have hooked up scanners and printers to the MDTs (mobile data terminals) they previously had in the cruisers, said Lt. Brian White.
The three units just got wired to the new system a couple of weeks ago, but officials are hoping to get all the marked patrol cars and traffic units equipped next year. It costs about $500 for the bar code scanner and small printer, White said. The software is provided free.
“There’s always a bit of a learning curve with it, but all three were excited about getting on the program and the courts are really excited about it,” White said. “It makes the ticketing process much smoother and there’s less possibility of errors. It actually walks you through completing a citation. There are certain fields you have to fill out and if you don’t, it won’t let you continue.”
Paper citations have five copies that have to be given to the driver, to the court and filed in specific ways. Authorities have to perform audits on the tickets, following the paper trail to make sure each copy went where it was supposed to go, White said.
Officers also have to carry three different ticket books for infractions, criminal traffic offenses and criminal citations, he said.
If a deputy stopped a car for speeding -- a minor traffic infraction -- then found the driver had a suspended license -- a criminal traffic offense -- and had some drug paraphernalia in the car -- a criminal offense -- the deputy would have to write three different tickets, White said.
With SECTOR, an officer would only have to fill out the information once, then print three different tickets.
Collision reports also are enhanced because deputies can use tools in the software to create an electronic diagram of the crash scene instead of having to draw a diagram by hand, White said.
Safety also is a huge bonus, Elmore said.
Troopers who used to have to spend five minutes on the side of the road filling out a ticket for a basic infraction can now be done in about two minutes.
“It’s a lot safer,” Elmore said. “It gets troopers (and drivers they’ve pulled over) off the side of the road quicker.”
In court, judges using a laptop have the convenience of simply downloading the citation right from the bench, Martin said.
Criminal citations, however, are still being printed for court files because the system doesn’t provide a place for judges to make comments and record their decisions.
Court officials are hoping that will change in the future. “Right now we still have to have a paper trail,” Lahtinen said.
Other minor disadvantages are that the font is small and hard to read, and court clerks can’t identify what agency issued the ticket because all the numbers start out the same. Now, for example, paper tickets issued by Kennewick start with a K, so a court clerk knows who issued the ticket without looking up the information.
The equipment also takes up a lot of room in the WSP’s patrol cars so troopers can’t have riders in the front passenger seat.
“That’s a hiccup that they’re working on,” Elmore said. “The system itself has been fairly flawless.”
Success stories from agencies already signed up is good news to Lahtinen because it means others will likely follow soon. She’s already gotten a request from the Richland Police Department to start and expects the West Richland Police Department to join on soon.
“I foresee down the road that we’re going to have all our law enforcement agencies on board with the new technology,” Lahtinen said. “It think it’s just wonderful. We’re adapting real well and it ties in with us going paperless down the road.
“It’s the way of the world.”
Copyright 2008 Tri-City Herald