Somerton police now issuing traffic tickets electronically

SOMERTON — Somerton police officers will no longer write tickets by hand.

They’ll still be ticketing offending motorists. They’ll just issue tickets electronically.

After a trial period of several weeks, the electronic citation system is now ready for use by patrol officers, said acting Police Chief Michelle Magana.

“They are happy that the system is now working,” Magana said. “It’s going to facilitate the work a lot and it will save a lot of time. It’s going to benefit the people a lot because the process of issuing citations will be faster.”

The system consists of a hand-held device the size of a telephone, used to scan the motorist’s driver’s license and vehicle registration and record other data, plus a small printer mounted in the patrol car. The printer will produce the motorists’ copy of the ticket.

The information is later downloaded into an internet database where it is accessible by the police department and Somerton Municipal Court.

Apart from saving time writing an infraction, the systems cuts the time it takes officers to file the citations in court, since the court now can access the information electronically, Magana said.

She said police officers began using the system on a trial basis the last weekend of March. During that period, the only bug in the system surfaced when some of the case numbers issued for infractions in Somerton were the same as those for other courts, such as San Luis Municipal Court, where an electronic citation system already in use there shares the same base as Somerton’s.

“That happened with some of the infractions, and it’s about to be corrected,” she said. “But in general, the system is good. The officers are using it effectively, and it will be better when they familiarize themselves with it completely.”

In the meantime, if necessary, officers can continue writing paper citations, she said.

Besides reducing the time needed to issue citations, the system also allows the officer to obtain a photograph of the driver from his or her license.

PHOTO BY CESAR NEYOY/BAJO EL SOL SOMERTON POLICE ARE GIVING UP WRITING CITATIONS by hand and are now issuing tickets electronically, using the hand-held device at the right. Acting Police Chief Michelle Magana says the new system will reduce the time needed to issue citations.