The Galesburg City Council on Monday night approved a new system for Galesburg Police, moving the department to an electronic system of issuing citations.
Police Chief David Christensen says the current six-copy carbon paper system has been around for decades. But law enforcement agencies across the country have moved to these electronic systems where officers can directly enter citation information and print out a copy for the violator.
Alderman Russell Fleming came around to a yes, but at first, questioned Christensen on why there wouldn’t be a reduction in data clerks if this new system is so much more efficient.
“The workload is such that other than the tickets, they literally can’t keep up,” Christensen told Aldermen. “There’s that much work to do, so we’re looking for ways to make the work more streamlined, more efficient and this is clearly a way.”
Alderman Wayne Dennis says in his conversations with retired officers they’ve told him this new system will be a huge time saver.
Officers will now give you a printed out sheet, replacing the sometimes messy carbon paper copy. Christensen says this system has kind of become industry standard.
“We’ve been looking at this for ten years or more. The whole notion of electronic ticketing is certainly the industry standard that agencies all over the United States are incorporating. This system isn’t cutting edge at all, it’s been around for a while.”
Christensen says the system will let officers scan a bar code on driver’s licenses to obtain the information it contains, with other similar streamlining of information sharing possible in the future.
Alderman and local attorney Jeremy Karlin asked if officers would be able to enter their written narrative reports into the system as well. Christensen says no but that would be a possibility for the future.
Aldermen approved the e-citation system unanimously.
