New eCitations means less paperwork for troopers, clerks
January 30, 2004

BY ERIC OLSON, The Herald-Sun
The N.C. Highway Patrol launched new software Friday that should help ease the workload at the Durham County Clerk of Courts Office and among troopers issuing traffic tickets.   

Dubbed eCitation, the software allows troopers to automatically submit their tickets to the clerk's office over the Internet, eliminating the need for them to be manually entered into the court's computer system.   

The Administrative Office of the Courts provided the software for free, and Durham's troopers are among troopers and sheriff's deputies in Wake, Mecklenburg and Cumberland counties participating in the pilot program.    

Last year, those three agencies, which have been operating the program for some time, issued 28,120 eCitations, said Col. Richard Holden, the commander of the N.C. Highway Patrol.   

"It's a big deal for us, since it's such a new project," said Sgt. Jerry Burton, who works for the Patrol's Information Management Unit. "We have more troopers who can use the printers, but we just don't have the money because of budgetary constraints. It helps us out tremendously."   

Currently, troopers, police officers and sheriff's deputies write citations by hand and give a copy to the defendant. Then, the officer takes the original back to headquarters, and another officer takes the collected reports to the courthouse. There, clerks manually enter information from the citations into the court's automated system.   

Barker French, who is part of the Durham Roundtable that donated about $3,000 to purchase and install the software and printers in five of Durham County's Highway Patrol cruisers, said he visited the clerk's office in September and discovered that the clerks were still putting in citations issued in July.   

With the new system, the trooper enters the driver's information into a laptop computer. An option also allows the trooper to enter only the defendant's driver's license number, and the computer automatically fills in the name, address and other pertinent information.   

Then, rather than writing out the full description of the offense and its statute number, the software provides a complete list of chargeable offenses. The trooper simply has to click on the laws that the driver is accused of violating.   

The trooper also can print out a copy of the ticket for the driver, using technology similar to that of fax machines, and the information is submitted over the Internet directly to the computer system in the clerk's office.   

"The person who received a ticket could technically go down and pay it off the same day," Burton said.   

First Sgt. E.C. Maness, of the Highway Patrol, estimated that the system could save about $4.5 million once it is fully implemented throughout the state. According to official records, an average of 1.2 million citations are issued annually.   

"When you look at that, you say, 'Man, we ought to be doing this,' " he said. "The training is very easy and the implementation is simplistic. The trooper just goes through the program clicking."   

In Wake County, 19 cruisers are equipped with the system and 13 more will have it soon, Burton said.   

"When every trooper has one in the car, it will save enough money for four clerks in the court system," he said. "If every trooper has it, that's four less people they would need in the court system to handle the volume of tickets that is produced."


    COPYRIGHT 2004 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.