Shave Three Minutes Off Traffic Stops
May 15, 2020 by Kate Nadolski
Imagine standing on the side of the highway, exposed to the oncoming traffic speeding by. It’s something that’s part of the job for hundreds of thousands of police officers who put their lives on the line to protect and serve every day.
“There were three Illinois State Troopers hit and killed along the roadside in 2019 and dozens more injured in similar instances,” said Lt. Trent Bukowski of the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office.
These types of tragic situations remind law enforcement agencies and the public how vulnerable officers can be - even when performing a routine task like issuing a ticket during a traffic stop.
These safety issues along with a citation system that impeded the ticketing writing process were the catalysts to making the sheriff’s office look for something different.
“We were constantly losing connection to the server with our ticketing system. We weren’t able to print from the car, and we spent a lot of time on the traffic stop that wasn’t necessarily needed,” said Bukowski.
To mitigate this situation, the department implemented an electronic ticketing solution that allows officers to enter data quickly and print the ticket right on the spot. The system also allowed for the digital submission of information to the courts.
“We’ve cut down drastically on the time our officers spend on a traffic stop, which is paramount for us,” explained Bukowski. “Our department reduced time by allowing officers to get all the information they need to acquire in one centralized place,” Bukowski said. “This allows them to maintain visual contact with the violator on the stop and any motorists traveling in the area. We saved almost three minutes per stop.”