Handwritten traffic tickets will soon be a thing of the past, replaced by cops with computers. New York City is adopting a traffic summons system with mobile computers and printers. The city says the new system will significantly reduce errors associated with handwritten tickets and, according to some estimates, realize millions in unpaid fines owed the city.
NYPD officers will use a handheld computer with integrated 2-D bar code scanning and wireless local area network (Wi-Fi) communications -- will be an alternative to New York City's current handwritten method of issuing tickets that is traditional in most U.S. municipalities.
With the new system, police and traffic enforcement officers simply scan the two-dimensional bar code incorporated in the vehicle's registration sticker, which is affixed on the windshield, and information about that particular vehicle will be instantly and accurately captured. A traffic summons will then be printed on the spot by a portable wearable thermal printer connected to the handheld computer via the WLAN.
The city will be purchasing approximately 1,500 Symbol mobile computers in 2003. Other cities throughout the U.S. are testing or are set to deploy similar solutions using the mobile computers, data capture and wireless technology.