More Efficient Traffic Ticketing? Great...

By DAVID SIMS

TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Zebra Technologies, a vendor of on-demand specialty printing products, says compact mobile and wireless printers are "increasingly being incorporated into software products and electronic systems for law enforcement agencies," and have proven to be "rugged, reliable workhorses for the on-demand issuance of citations for traffic and parking violations, as well as accident report documentation."

Just what John Q. Public needs -- more efficient traffic ticketing. Anyway.

Robert Danahy, director of global mobile and wireless technology for Zebra, says "news of technology advancement spreads quickly in the law enforcement community. Early adopters of automated mobile systems and wireless computing platforms have reported significant benefits, from reduced staff time to better record-keeping to higher revenue from increased fine collections."

There are, in fact, several recent examples of how law enforcement agencies are using mobile and wireless technology to improve public fundraising via traffic and parking citations:

The Hollywood, Florida Police Department is migrating its traffic control and record-keeping processes to QuickTicket and Virtual Partner, a real-time mobile application suite developed by Advanced Public Safety, Inc. of Deerfield Beach.

"We look forward to the operational benefits the new system will provide for our department and traffic officers," said Capt. Joseph Healey in Hollywood PD's Support Services Division. "The applications will enhance efficiency, increase accuracy and eliminate the need for multiple data entry, allowing officers to upload their data wirelessly at the end of their shift into the main records database."

Challenged by the unreliability and functional limitations of its existing electronic ticketing system, the City of Yonkers, New York Parking Violations Bureau turned to the EZTag Corporation of Plattsburg, NY, a vendor of automated citation issuance and management products. As a result, the PVB was able to implement EZTag's Mobile Enforcement Product, which combines handheld mobile computers equipped with advanced imaging technology and Zebra QL 320 mobile printers.

The system enables completion and printing of a parking citation in 10 seconds or less, with relevant vehicle information scanned and populated into the appropriate application fields. The issuing officer only has to input the location information; the data is then transferred to the printer via Bluetooth wireless technology, and the ticket is printed.

The City of Toronto, Ontario contracted with Epic Data International, a vendor of automatic identification and data capture products, to implement TicketManager, Epic Data's wireless parking enforcement product. The system, which will serve Toronto's population of nearly 2.4 million and a workforce of about 300 parking enforcement officers, is comprised of the TicketManager software, rugged handheld computers and Zebra QL 320 mobile printers.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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