ROGERS -- The scan and print functions of a new electronic ticketing system in Rogers will save time during traffic stops, officers said.
Carbon-copy tickets can get lost, stuck to other papers or misfiled, but the digital system gets rid of that, said Lt. Mike Johnson of the support services division.
In the electronic system, an officer scans a driver's license, selects the offense from a drop-down menu and prints a ticket from inside the patrol vehicle.
Law enforcement agencies around Northwest Arkansas are divided on adopting a digital system for misdemeanor tickets. Springdale is considering it, as are the Washington County and Benton County sheriff's offices, spokesmen said.
Bentonville has used electronic ticketing for two years.
"So far it has really streamlined things, especially on the court side," Bentonville Police Chief Jon Simpson said.
Although there's no perfect technology, the digital system has led to increased accuracy, Simpson said.
It also helps with documentation. If an officer writes a ticket for something like a lack of tread on tires, then he can take a picture and attach it electronically to court documents.
Fayetteville has had an electronic ticketing system since 2008, police spokesman Sgt. Craig Stout said.
The department is working on an upgrade to its reporting system software so it can link more information.The upgrade will likely take more than a year, Stout said.
The ticketing system for misdemeanor infractions went live in Rogers in July. Before then officers wrote out the carbon-copy tickets by hand and sent them to a supervisor, who sent a copy to the court and a copy to the records department. It could take a week and a half for a person to be able to pay a ticket, Johnson said.
There is still a slight delay because, although the information is sent directly to the court, it has to be retyped into the court software, said Connie Watson, court clerk for the Rogers division of the Benton County District Court. Programmers have told her that soon they'll be able to test importing a person's name, date and charges directly into her software.
But Watson said that even with the retyping, it's a better system than the carbon copies.
"At least we can read them now," she said.
The police department planned for six months to get the system off the ground, Johnson said.
"It's not just one of those things you just plug and play," he said.
There are limitations, Johnson said. Officers have to check a person's driver's license for outstanding warrants against a different system. The digital systems used by cities do not coordinate with the Benton County District Court, so felony-level offenses cannot be cited.
The primary problems after the July 6 rollout in Rogers were the equipment shaking loose in the vehicles and officers plugging the printer into a computer port for which it wasn't configured, said Sgt. Troy Curby of support services.
The software helps supervisors see if an officer is busy. Many officers make a lot of stops but don't write many tickets, Curby said. The software documents warnings.
The data that officers produce also show if they're writing a lot of post-accident tickets at a certain intersection, Curby said. Just having an officer visible at a dangerous intersection during a peak accident hour might make drivers more apt to obey traffic laws, Johnson said.
Not much has changed for drivers. A paper ticket is still issued.
Curby tests the system for Rogers. He picks up what looks like a grocery scanner, then scans his driver's license, and his name and address pops up on his computer screen. He selects his race, the offense for the ticket and prints off what looks like a wide and very long receipt that has his court date. Were he issuing a ticket, he would have go through one more screen to submit the information to the court system.
Because he uses his own information to test the system, he might be the most frequently almost-ticketed person in Rogers.
"That guy just doesn't learn," Curby quipped.
Purchasing the system was a balance of cost and convenience, Curby said.
Putting a barcode scanner and ticket printer in 75 cars and one in the department cost $141,501. The money was budgeted for 2015 and partially paid through court automation money, Johnson said.
The e-ticketing system will make a traffic stop faster, but Johnson said it's not going to make officers write more tickets.
In September 2014 there were 387 traffic tickets given in Rogers. In September 2015 there were 344. In October 2014 there were 379 traffic tickets written in Rogers. In October 2015 that number increased to 385. The six additional tickets could have been caused by a couple more wrecks, Johnson said.
Metro on 11/16/2015