Virginia State Police say electronic ticketing system will save time and lives
BY FRANK GREEN Richmond Times-Dispatch Feb 17, 2020
The average length of time it takes a Virginia state trooper to write a ticket on the side of a road has been cut from 26 minutes to 10 minutes using an electronic summons system, according to the findings of a pilot project in Northern Virginia.
Those 16 saved minutes for each of 82,700 summonses written, translate into an additional 22,000 hours saved per year – the equivalent of adding 11 full-time troopers.
The Virginia State Police say that by taking the e-summons program statewide, the roughly 500,000 summonses issued a year could equate to 66 more troopers. More importantly, the shorter roadside ticket processing time will save the lives of troopers and the public by limiting the danger of nearby passing traffic, the state police say.
To take the effort statewide, the state police need the General Assembly to grant it the authority, which is already given to local governments, to charge those getting the tickets a $5 court fee to pay for the hardware and software costs.
"All we’re asking for is the same authority the General Assembly has given every other law enforcement agency in Virginia except us," Wayne D. Huggins, a former superintendent of the state police told a Senate committee last week. Huggins, now the executive director of the Virginia State Police Association, read off the names of more than a dozen troopers killed in the line of duty along roadways. "That’s the reason we need this bill is to protect, not only us, but the motoring public because they are exposed to the hazard 60% less at the same time,” he said.
A state police report on the pilot program last October, said that the e-summons system allows a trooper to scan drivers' licenses and vehicle registrations, immediately filling out many of the data fields required to be recorded on a summons. Other fields, such as the court where the case will be tried, are selected from a drop-down menu. The system greatly speeds up the exchange of information compared with handwritten ticket processing and eliminates legibility issues concerning the location, date and time the case is scheduled to be heard and clearly identifies the trooper writing the summons.
The system also benefits the courts, which can upload the information into their case management systems. The enabling legislation, House Bill 172E, introduced by Del. Paul Krizek, D-Alexandria, was passed by the House in a 99-0 vote. In the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, while members voiced support for the greater safety and efficiency offered by the system, some questioned the imposition of a $5 fee.
Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, said, “This ought to be done, this would be great. The problem that I have is it is yet another fee on a criminal charge. I think it’s OK to have some. But for the most part, people are getting assessed more in fees than they are in the actual fine.”
In the end, the committee reported the bill out with a referral to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to see if there might be another way to pay the associated costs. A Department of Planning and Budget analysis reported that almost $2 million was appropriated two years ago for the two-year pilot program that involved equipping 100 of Northern Virginia’s 177 patrol vehicles with required devices.
The state police said there are now 50 local jurisdictions using the e-summons program in the state. The state police would expand their program as the $5 fee provided revenue to grow. Statewide implementation could be done over eight years for $15 to $20 million for the department’s 1,121 vehicles, with no cost to the state’s general fund.