PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

The El Cajon Municipal Court District, located in Northern San Diego County, has been experiencing significant growth over the past several years. This rapid growth has led to a steady increase in traffic court cases, as well as increasing numbers of calls for police assistance, collision investigations, and traffic citations issued. The increasing work load demands placed on the time of law enforcement officers has exacerbated the problems associated with hand-written traffic citations. They are frequently illegible and require considerable time to prepare and transcribe for data entry into the centralized computer system. The data processing alone requires 16 person hours per day.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The primary goals of this project are to reduce the amount of time required to process citations issued by the police agencies serving the El Cajon Municipal Court, and to ensure that complete and accurate driver information is made available to the courts. These goals will be met by providing these police agencies with Automated Citation Writing Devices (ACDs).

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

Each of the city police departments was provided with ACDs and software and, in some cases, hardware required to ensure that they were computer linked with the court. At the outset of the project, the local barracks of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) were not issued ACDs, but as the data came in verifying the efficiency of the systems, the CHP was included in the program.

Automated Citation Writing Devices (cont'd)

Using the ACD, a portable, hand-held electronic device, an officer is able to scan information from the newer California driver license with a magnetic strip, or to key in information from the older style license. Data about all citations issued in the course of a day are stored on a diskette that can be transferred to the agency's computer and uploaded directly to the El Cajon Municipal Court computer. Software on the Court's computer then automatically generates all the needed letters (e.g. advisory letters to violators, etc.) and accesses the required driver information from the computer at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The system also allows for the electronic transmission of information about final disposition of the cases back to the originating law enforcement agency, rather than requiring the local agency to travel to the court to retrieve this information.

RESULTS

Use of the Automated Citation Writing Devices has significantly reduced the amount of time from the initial enforcement action to final disposition, thereby emphasizing to the violators the connection between violation and penalty. In addition, use of the devices has enabled the local

police agencies and the court to accommodate the increased workload without the expense of additional personnel. Municipal Court judges report that the completeness and accuracy of the materials presented to them about traffic violations has improved. They now can even get information about scofflaws and stolen vehicles when relevant. Furthermore, the failure to appear rate has declined. Police agencies within the Court District, including the CHP, continue to use the devices enthusiastically.

A formal evaluation designed to document actual time and cost savings is planned for the near future. In the interim, the Central California Livermore-Pleasanton-Dublin Municipal Court is implementing the program.