No one likes to get a speeding ticket and lord knows most traffic citations are irritating in general, but do you want to see them move into the digital age?
The question may be moot in certain parts of the country in fact. According to a story on Stateline.org, the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, home to Microsoft and other high-tech icons, is the latest to join the e-citation trend. It’s outfitting several state police cars with devices that permit traffic citations to be processed electronically.
With the system, police officers can scan a violator’s driver’s license and registration, generate a citation and transmit it wirelessly for processing. The only paper produced is a driver’s copy printed at the scene of the traffic stop. And some tickets don’t require a driver’s signature, speeding the process further.
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Other states are looking into similar systems, Maryland for example recently said it would be implementing an “e-citation” program soon. North Carolina and Alabama already have them and a study by the U.S. Department of Transportation said at least 27 states were handling citations electronically in some form.
Many states have for awhile now let you pay tickets online so that part’s not new. And others have red-light runner readers that issue tickets to those chuckle-heads.
What would be cool is if states that have Fast Pass or IPass, or EZPass electronic toll gathering systems let you pay your tickets off those accounts. Imagine, you get an e-citation on I-95 in say Florida and when you pass under the next e-toll booth reader it deducts the fine and adds points against your license. Hmmm…on second thought.
Proponents of e-citations systems say they are more accurate, save time and money as well as keep police (and the public) safe by getting them moved off the side of busy, high-speed highways more quickly. All of this does sound more efficient but something about it feels a little too Orwellian. What do you think?
