March 7th, 2017
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The NOPD will soon say goodbye to old-fashioned ticket books as officers upgrade to an electronic citation program.
The pilot program will soon have officers signing in to digiTICKET to process paperwork instead of filling out forms by hand, according to an NOPD press release.
“Once we successfully pilot the technology, NOPD will have the ability to establish a mechanism to electronically issue traffic citations and municipal summons and affidavits in the field,” NOPD Director of Analytics Ben Horowitz said. “Officers will electronically scan driver licenses and NOPD will be able to modify the electronic police reporting system and the field interview card system. The result will not only be time savings for officers, but also cleaner and more accurate data that can be utilized for person-based crime analysis.”
The digiTICKET system uses a custom handheld computer or scanner connected to a laptop or tablet to scan licenses, issue tickets, and record vehicle information, according to the NOPD.
Legibility concerns will be a thing of the past, and the new system will dramatically cut back on data entry time while streamlining manual supervisory approvals.
“It’s a good program – eight law enforcement agencies in Louisiana are already using it,” retired NOPD Major Felix Loicano said. “We’re working with the developers now to tweak it and make it work better for NOPD’s needs. Then we’ll launch it as a pilot program in the Third District and the Traffic Division.”
The new system will also allow officers to view how many times a suspect has received warnings or citations for a specific offense, according to the NOPD, and the location and frequency of citations will also be easily analyzed to spot patterns and potential hotspots.