Police Tout E-Ticketing Program as Cheaper, Safer

They're cheaper and they're safer for the police officers who are using them.

That's essentially how officials from seven Camden County towns described the new e-ticketing systems their towns' police officers are now using, during a press conference held inside Gloucester Township's Erial Road Public Works Department garage Wednesday afternoon to tout the new technology.

Bellmawr Police Chief William Walsh brought together the seven towns—Gloucester Township, Bellmawr, Haddon Heights, Magnolia, Oaklyn, Pine Hill and Runnemede—that agreed to enter into a shared-services agreement to purchase the e-ticketing systems last year.

The seven towns shared the initial $9,126 cost for the software and database state interface, which is hosted in Gloucester Township, and will share the annual maintenance and service fee of $3,384.

"Our hats are off to the seven towns that participated in this," Barrington Police Chief Joe Eisenhart, who is first vice president of the Camden County Police Chiefs Association, said. "What some people may not believe is that police chiefs can come together in agreement on a lot of things. We can share. We can cooperate. We can collaborate."

Savings moving forward will come in a variety of forms for the municipalities that joined the e-ticketing shared-services agreement.

"Seven communities in Camden County are not only getting together to share services and save taxpayers money, but just as important, we are getting together to improve efficiency in government, and we're increasing the efficiency by first looking at costs—costs that are associated with issuing summonses," Gloucester Township Mayor David Mayer said.

Mayer noted that while each traditional paper ticket costs the township 60 ¢, each e-ticket costs just 7 ¢.

Gloucester Township Police installed the Advanced Public Safety QuickTicket systems in eight patrol cars in mid-December, according to Chief W. Harry Earle.

From the eight cars, a total of 327 tickets had been issued using the e-ticketing system as of Wednesday, according to Earle. At 7 ¢ per ticket as opposed to 60 ¢ per ticket, the township has saved $173 in less than two months.

But the real savings will come in terms of manpower hours saved, officials said.

Not only will police officers be able to return to patrol the township's streets much more quickly than when issuing summonses with traditional ticket books, but the e-ticketing system eliminates the need for court personnel to manually enter the ticket information.

Gloucester Township Municipal Court Administrator Patty Carroll informed police it would have taken court personnel about five hours to input the information from 327 paper tickets into the court's database.

Walsh noted other towns in the area have inquired about joining the shared-services agreement—Eisenhart suggested Barrington is interested.

For the police chiefs and municipal officials, e-ticketing is as much about officer safety as it is about saving their towns money.

"When you're out on a car stop in the middle of the night and there's three or four people in the car, (officers) don't have to constantly keep looking down and writing a ticket," Walsh said. "They can be checking on the occupants better by just having to click a button."

Earle indicated Gloucester Township is looking to add as many as 36 e-ticketing units in the future. At an average rate of more than 12,000 tickets issued per year, the township would save some $6,360 each year just on the cost of the paper used for tickets.

In addition to Mayer, Bellmawr Mayor Betty Ann Cowling-Carson attended the press conference.

Earle, Eisenhart and Walsh were joined by Haddon Heights Chief Richard Kinkler, Magnolia Chief John Evans, Oaklyn Chief Joseph Abbate, Pine Hill Chief Chris Winters and Runnemede Chief Mark Diano.