CHP Computers to Chase Down Facts, Help Spit Out Tickets Fast

A hand-held computer that eventually will allow police to print out traffic tickets instantly and allow speeding motorists to pay fines with credit cards was unveiled by the California Highway Patrol Monday in a ceremony atop the Conejo Grade.

Under a $60,000 project in Ventura County that is hailed as the nation’s first, the CHP has equipped officers with 12 computers and portable printers to cut down on the time and paperwork required to process handwritten tickets.

The computers, measuring nearly 7 inches in length, can list a driver’s hair and eye color and vehicle type with a punch of a few keys, said officials who demonstrated the equipment at the Conejo Commercial Vehicle Inspection Facility on the Ventura Freeway.

And when the Department of Motor Vehicles issues magnetic licenses in December, law enforcement officials hope to use the computer to tap into the National Crime Information Center and obtain records of prior arrests and outstanding warrants.

Ventura County was selected for the initial project because of lobbying by county court officials, the CHP said.

In December, the DMV’s Oxnard office will be among the first in the state to issue licenses with a magnetic strip on the back. Officers will be able to run the license through the computer to obtain background information that now must be retrieved through a dispatcher.

Within five years, the computer should be able to accept credit cards from motorists who decide to post bail without leaving their cars, Lt. Claude LeMond said.

Area law enforcement leaders--including the captain and chief of the Ventura and Simi Valley police departments--said they are closely watching the project and anticipate the equipment will be used in the future to document other misdemeanors.

“Eventually I would think the technology would be available to issue all citations,” Capt. Randy Adams of the Ventura Police Department said.

If the program proves successful in the next 12 months, the CHP plans to implement automated ticketing throughout California within three years, CHP Commissioner Maury Hannigan said.

“The 21st Century is less than 10 years away and law enforcement needs to take advantage of technological advances if it is to keep pace with today’s world,” Hannigan said.

It now takes one week to a month for cited motorists to receive a courtesy notice regarding their fines because tickets are physically transported to the court and then typed into a computer, said Sheila Gonzalez, executive officer of the Ventura County Superior and Municipal courts. The courts receive about 6,500 tickets a month, she said, and many are sloppily written or contain errors.

With the computers, violators will be able to have information about their fines within 24 hours, she said.

“It is our belief that this will become an absolute way of doing business,” Gonzalez said. “I think eventually all information will be transferred electronically.”

The magnetic licenses will save time because the photographs will be digitally stored on a computer, said Bill Gengler, spokesman for the department’s Sacramento bureau.

“That process will make it very easy for people to get a duplicate license if they’ve lost a license,” Gengler said. “It will keep a million people out of our offices each year.”