Question: What technological options are there for automatic traffic violation tracking? (Councilwoman Alyia Gaskins)
Response:
The Alexandria Police Department is currently using the e-Citation System for automatic traffic violation tracking. The City allocated CIP funds for the implementation of a pilot program for the e-Citation System in 2019. This is an electronic ticketing and processing system used to generate reports and issue traffic citations. Since its inception, 41,302 citations/warnings have been issued by our officers. Retrieving information from this database has freed hours of staff time - this data can be pulled from the e-Citation website in less than 30 seconds.
Using e-Citation is more efficient for the officers to use, reducing the time spent at a traffic stop, and increases officer safety by removing the need to carry a clipboard so a driver can sign the summons, in turn, leaving both officer’s hands free. Even though the Community Policing Data Act did not exist when the project first began, e-Citation has been extremely helpful in making sure the department remains compliant. When an officer issues a citation manually, they must then complete an entry in On-Call Records to record all the information required by the state. When using e-Citation, that data is captured during the completion of the citation, and recorded in a custom report which we use to send data to State Police. This is one of the most popular features with our officers, eliminating an extra step.
Currently, a dedicated team consisting of three employees manage the e-Citation program for the department. They order supplies and equipment, approve all the citations, and train any new users. The system is updated with any changes made by the General Assembly regarding Traffic or Criminal Offense Codes. The system works on the City issued iPhones for e-Citation. The court liaison officer prints the citations daily for the courts and contacts the unit with any issues the courts might have with e-Citation (i.e. any trouble locating a citation or any other technical issues).
For the police officers who have not been issued e-Citation devices, there is a secondary system in place where they are manually writing citations and then at the end of their shift, they are sent to our Information Services Section to be counted and entered in the WebRMS database. This is a cumbersome job and is done by two members of the Volunteer Unit. The e-citation system provides immediate data sourcing material; whereas the manual counting can take up to months to count and enter the data. The Department purchased 255 devices, which were funded by the CIP, and has deployed 165 with plans to deploy the remaining devices in the summer of 2024. The Department plans on using the revenue accrued from e-Citation to purchase more devices when needed. No additional funding requests were made.