Hand-written tickets a thing of the past in Suwanee

GAINESVILLE - Along with 2007, the Suwanee Police Department is saying goodbye to hand-written traffic citations. The department recently upgraded its computer software and earlier this month began issuing electronically generated tickets.

Using laptops, scanners, and printers in the field as well as the police department's new public safety software provided through Information Technologies, Inc. (ITI) of St. Louis, Suwanee officers can now generate a citation in less than one minute. It took experienced officers about 5 minutes to issue hand-written citations, notes Deputy Chief Janet Moon.

"Not only does this make our officers more efficient," Moon says, "our e-tickets will save other City resources as well."

Lt. Cass Mooney explains: "With our old system, an officer wrote a ticket, then our records clerk entered the information into the police system and a court clerk entered the data into that system. The electronic tickets require only the officer in the field to enter the data-and much of that is self-populated-and the system automatically transfers that information to the records and court systems. We've cut out two steps and saved a whole lot of staff time."

The new software allows officers to run vehicle tag information through a wireless connection to the Georgia Criminal Information Center (GCIC), and drivers licenses can be scanned in the field. The information from these sources automatically populates on the citation; the only information the officer needs to key in is offense, location, and court date.

"This upgrade gives us more functionality," Deputy Chief Moon says. "Having a wireless connection and the ability to search our database as well as having access to state and national criminal information centers from the field is invaluable. In our post 9-11 world, access to information in a timely manner is critical."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/12/205124