Officials, Police Attribute Sharp Increase in Summonses to E-Tickets

The ’s electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) system, approved by the Fort Lee Mayor and Council late last year, has made issuing tickets for traffic violations safer for police officers, faster for both officers and motorists and more efficient for the courts to process and violators to pay, as officials had hoped, they say.

It has also resulted in a steep increase in the number of summonses police are issuing, according to police and borough officials, to the tune of more than 50 percent.

“From what the police tell me, there’s a 57 percent increase in the number of summonses,” said Fort Lee Councilman Jan Goldberg, who, as liaison to the Fort Lee Municipal Court, was instrumental in pushing the program forward.

Goldberg said the reason for the increase is simple.

“Because it’s so easy,” he said.

The Fort Lee governing body to GTBM Inc. of East Rutherford in November, clearing the way for a permanent e-ticketing system, after over several months, installing e-ticket readers, software and printers in some police cars.

Goldberg said at the time that hundreds of tickets were issued during the demonstration project started in June 2011, and that errors were “miniscule.”

The resolution passed in November provided for the purchase of 40 licenses—enough for essentially the entire fleet of patrol and traffic cars and even some handheld devices for motorcycle patrolmen—from the company that was already providing the local police department with its Info-Cop technology.

Now several months into the program, Goldberg says officials are “just happy that we have a system that keeps a small police department productive.”

“And of paramount importance is that it keeps them safe during road stops,” Goldberg said. “We’re delighted at the success of the program.”

With the computerized ticketing process, a police officer, instead of manually writing a ticket, scans the driver’s license barcode on a portable reader, and all of the driver’s demographic information appears. The officer then picks from a dropdown menu the appropriate violation or violations, hits print and hands a computer printout of the summons to the motorist.

“Because it’s a computer-generated system with a barcode reader, I think that’s the reason that it happens,” Golberg said, explaining the sharp increase in summonses since the program was instituted. “They don’t have to keep copying over license numbers and addresses and names, and also there are very few errors.”

As a result, he added, police spend less time at each stop and are able to get on with their business more quickly.

Capt. Keith Bendul of the Fort Lee Police Department couldn’t immediately verify the 57 percent figure, but he did call it “a significant jump in summonses,” estimating that jump at well over 50 percent.

However he also noted that the e-ticketing program might not be the only factor accounting for the increase.

“It can partially be attributed to the e-ticketing—the increase in efficiency there—and also the pedestrian enforcement programs that the chief authorized,” Bendul said. “I can’t attribute the increase to one or the other, but the two coinciding events have produced a significant jump in summonses and productivity.”

Still, Bendul called e-ticketing “absolutely a successful program” thus far.

“The e-ticketing system has made officers more productive,” he said. “The streamlined amount of time it takes to issue the summons, multiple summonses are able to be issued for violations, and it also reduces the time that the officer is in contact with the public on the side of the road, which increases officer safety.”

Goldberg said he was brought in on the e-ticket initiative because Municipal Court Judge John R. DeSheplo “was going to do it in Leonia” and asked him to come to a meeting on the matter. Goldberg also said the feedback he’s received from court officials, with whom he is in contact “one a regular basis,” has been positive.

“Errors are down,” he said. “There’s an exception report that comes out that they can work on quickly if there are any problems, and I believe the judge loves it.”