Agency's Answer to Ticketing
October 06, 2020 by Kate Nadolski
As law enforcement officers know, time is of the essence. And that’s why command staff with the Castle Rock Police Department in Colorado wanted to change the way the agency issued tickets.
Commander Todd Brown of the Castle Rock Police Department said before automating processes, every citation was written with pen and paper. That meant even routine traffic stops took approximately 12.5 minutes to complete.
To lessen the number of citations issued and enact change to improve driver safety, the department looked for a way to change their processes. That’s when they decided to do away with pen and paper processes.
“Now that we’ve automated our citation processes, we’re saving more than three minutes on every traffic stop,” Brown said. “Making this switch from handwritten tickets to automated processes was truly ground breaking.”
When looking at the big picture, Brown said the time savings were significant.
“In the last 18 months, we’ve completed 10,000 traffic stops,” Brown said. “That’s 32,000 and a half minutes, which is 540 hours of less time being on the side of the road.”
And the time-saving benefits don’t end on the roadside. After issuing a citation during a traffic stop, it’s sent digitally to support staff to relevant public safety and court applications.
“It’s great knowing that record’s staff that doesn’t have to read sloppy handwriting,” Brown said. “Eliminating legibility issues are just phenomenal.”
Even with a flourishing city and police department, the Castle Rock PD has not expanded their support staff - because they haven’t had to, thanks to the efficiency of their processes.
“We wrote more tickets and we processed more customers through the courts,” Brown said. “Our records staff hasn't added anybody. How do you do that? It's because of the technology. Citation management solutions make it a lot easier to use. We still must merge it, but the reports are integrated seamlessly through the interface.”
Overall, Brown said timed saved is allowing officers to put it back into the community where it belongs.
“That is the game changer,” Brown said. “These are hours we get back to spend in the community. That means better safety for the officers. That means they’re not standing next to a car delivering a ticket for three extra minutes every stop.”