Police Moving To e-Tickets

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- These tough economic times have most everyone pinching pennies, including the City of Tulsa.  Tulsa Police have come up with a way to save money and time as well.

It's called an e-ticket system and it's a way to eliminate paper traffic tickets with computerized tickets.  It would cost $400,000 to get it started, but the city council believes it could save much more in manpower and paperwork.

The paper traffic ticket used by Tulsa Police hasn't changed much since the invention of carbon paper.  Corporal Will Dalsing believes paper tickets are obsolete considering new technology that for one thing, doesn't count on good handwriting.

"So, not only do we have to deal with the handwriting issues, trying to write quickly in the rain sometimes, but then, we have these hard copies that can be lost before they ever get where they need to be," said Tulsa Police Corporal Will Dalsing.

When an officer writes a paper ticket, it usually takes about 15 minutes.  The paper copy has been handled by several people before it ever gets to court.

Handheld computers can eliminate all of the paperwork and speed up the process.

"It's not that we're in a big hurry to write a lot of tickets, but it's a necessary public safety function that we believe reduces collisions and injuries," said Tulsa Police Corporal Will Dalsing.

Tulsa's busiest traffic officers write 30 to 40 tickets a day.  They'll be the first to get the computers that can scan a driver's license and transmit all the information, wirelessly, right to the courthouse.

"The amount of time spent manually entering data; every bit of information on the ticket goes into a database.  Somebody has to do that by hand.  That will no longer be necessary.  That's a big cost savings right there," said Tulsa Police Corporal Will Dalsing.

The police hope to roll out the system early next year, but they're waiting on a vote from the Tulsa City Council.  That vote is expected next Thursday night.