WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Deputies Going High Tech on Hilton Head Island
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Deputies can write tickets electronically beginning with just one swipe of a person's driver's license.
Getting a traffic ticket on Hilton Head Island will still cost you the same amount, but the good news is you'll get your ticket and get back on the road a lot quicker.
Technology inside patrols cars isn't what it used to be, especially in some cruisers on Hilton Head Island. Through a pilot program, several deputies on the island are trying out new electronic ticket equipment on their laptops, allowing them to write tickets electronically beginning with just one swipe of a person's driver's license.
After it swipes, all the necessary information automatically pops up on the screen and after just a few clicks, they can have the ticket in hand and be back out on the roads patrolling.
"It reduces the time our deputies are spending on a traffic stop and it really eliminates any problems with legibility issues with hand written tickets," said Lance Cpl. Robin McIntosh.
And it's a big help for traffic stops with multiple citations. "It cuts their time down because they can just import the date from one ticket to the other without have to do it multiple times," said McIntosh.
"At the end of the shift, they go to the office, upload the tickets directly into the court data base so no hands have to touch it," said Renee Phillips with the Town of Hilton Head Island.
Leaving less room for error, especially at the court house where tickets have to be processed.
"They scan them in and they were having a rejection rate of 20 percent of the tickets because they were illegible. This way they scan them in and they are all readable," said Phillips
Soon, more deputies patrolling the island will have one. Beginning at the first of the year, the Town of Hilton Head Island will be bringing ten more electronic ticket machines on line, but those will be similar to the few they have now, but with a keyboard and a card swipe and of course a portable printer.
All devices that should get more officers back to patrolling the roads a lot quicker.
The cost for each of the devices including the printer is $1,800.
Reported by: Jaime Dailey, jdailey@wtoc.com
