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Speeding Tickets To Go Faster

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By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

TAMPA - This is not something most drivers want to hear: The process of giving out traffic tickets is getting more efficient.

The Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court's Office is putting the finishing touches on new systems aimed at making the ticket writing process faster and less complicated. That means officers will be able to spend less time writing each ticket, and the citations will make their way into the court system much quicker.

Eventually, clerk officials say, you'll be able to pay a ticket online within moments of receiving it.

The upgrades are long overdue. The clerk's office has been working with a traffic citation system that's 25 years old. The office also has equally antiquated and cumbersome systems for civil and criminal court information.

In many cases, information about juries is handled in a manual way: pen and paper.

The transition hasn't been easy. Some of the problems with the traffic ticket recordkeeping was highlighted in 2005 when the clerk's office discovered it had a five-month backlog.

For years, clerks also have contended with a labor-intensive criminal and civil court filing system that officials earlier this year decided to scrap after more than 10 years and $16 million.

The backlog has been erased, and Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank said the new ticket recording system will reduce the need to manually re-enter information about citations. It also should cut down on mistakes, said Jane Mumbauer, director of the clerk's traffic division.

Statutes for moving violations frequently change, and one of the benefits of the new system is it won't allow officers to enter the wrong statute - a frequent source of frustration for clerk and court officials, and officers who have to navigate cumbersome code books.

System Partially Fills Out Ticket

The new $3 million system allows officers to swipe driver's licenses through a card reader, which automatically fills out part of the ticket. It also pulls up information on the officer's computer that shows who the car is registered to and whether the driver has any warrants.

All officers in Temple Terrace and Plant City already have laptops, printers and software that allows them to use the new system. Another 200 Tampa police officers use the system.

The new ticket writing program, however, won't be used by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the county's largest law enforcement agency. Frank said the agency has invested in its own streamlined ticket writing system.

Frank and Mumbauer expect the system to dramatically improve the efficiency of logging and collecting traffic citations. In addition to sending ticket info quickly, the system automatically divvies up how the fines are distributed, a complicated process that splits a simple red light running ticket four ways for those stopped in unincorporated areas.

Get the same ticket inside city limits, and the fine gets split five ways

Traffic tickets aren't the only function of the clerk's office getting an upgrade.

•The office has also rolled out kiosks that help people file for divorce and small-claims lawsuits themselves. The software works much like do-it-yourself tax programs. Petitioners answer simple questions, and the program does the paperwork.

Just like with traffic tickets - which are plagued by poor penmanship - the kiosks will improve the accuracy of paperwork, officials say.

•Jury selection is also going digital. Currently, courtroom clerks keep track of jurors by writing down information about who's been selected and who's been dismissed. A new system donated by Palm Beach County will link the jury pool with courtrooms so clerks quickly can keep tabs on who's been called, dismissed and selected for panels.

Clerk officials say the automation likely will mean that residents will be called less frequently for jury duty. Some people receive a summons every year.

•Still under development is a system for civil and criminal court filings. Frank said her office has set aside roughly $7 million to build a new system that will handle the growing needs of the court system.

Changes Please Court Personnel

All the changes are welcome additions to court personnel. Judges and other staffers are beginning to see the "light at the end of the tunnel," said Mike Bridenback, Hillsborough's court administrator.

When all the new systems are complete, Bridenback said, judges will have access to a lot more information electronically. The result, he said, will "improve the quality of their decision making."

Frank said all the changes eventually will create a more efficient office. While she said she doesn't expect to lay any employees off, she said the programs should allow her to keep from having to expand her office's work force.

Harry Cohen, Frank's senior deputy, said the improvements will make the courthouse navigable for a society that's now accustomed to ATMs, touch-screens and paying bills online.

Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or amccartney@tampatrib.com.

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