Pacer Wins Contract

Pacer Infotec Inc. said it has landed a $925,000 contract to supply an electronic reporting system to the New York City Department of Probation.

The system will allow the department to use electronic kiosks, instead of probation officers, to handle routine check-ins of low-risk parolees. Pacer is a New Jersey-based company, but its Criminal Justice Systems group is based in Fountain Valley.

Probation officers will be able to “focus on rehabilitation and other important duties instead of routine administrative tasks,” said John Rennie, chief executive of Pacer.

The kiosks have touch-screens that identify parolees by reading their handprints, and then prompt them to report their current addresses, phone numbers and other information. Company officials compared the process to an ATM transaction, and said it takes just a few minutes.

New York City officials said the probation department oversees about 60,000 parolees, of whom about 35,000 will use the Pacer system for routine check-ins.

Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com