Police Department’s Automated Citation System Facilitates ...



|Overview | | |“Traffic officers who use these devices can write a ticket a lot faster than a handwritten citation. |

|Country or Region: United States | | |Very experienced traffic officers probably can write one in 45 seconds.” |

|Industry: Government—Public safety | | |Ruben Chavez, Lieutenant, San Jose Police Department |

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|Customer Profile | | | |

|The San Jose Police Department promotes a | | | |

|high quality of life for the 1 million | | | |

|citizens in San Jose, California. The | | | |

|department’s 1,300 officers provide law | | | |

|enforcement and emergency services. | | | |

| | | | |

|Business Situation | | | |

|The department wanted to automate its | | | |

|paper-based citation process and reduce | | | |

|ticket errors. In addition, mobile officers | | | |

|needed access to citation information stored | | | |

|on multiple databases. | | | |

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|Solution | | | |

|A solution built on Microsoft® SQL Server® | | | |

|2005 Compact Edition data management software| | | |

|and applications from 3i Infotech digitizes | | | |

|the citation process and gives officers | | | |

|roaming access to databases. | | | |

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|Benefits | | | |

|Increased productivity | | | |

|Reduced citation errors by 95 percent | | | |

|Improved data access and collaboration | | | |

|Maintained 99.999 percent availability | | | |

|Provided for scalability and flexibility | | | |

| | | |The San Jose Police Department wanted to speed the process for writing citations and to reduce the |

| | | |number of errors on tickets. The department also wanted to provide officers with greater access to |

| | | |information when out of the office. To address these issues, the police department engaged 3i |

| | | |Infotech to deploy an electronic citation system. Built on Microsoft products such as the Windows |

| | | |Mobile® operating system, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 Enterprise Edition data management software, |

| | | |and the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework, the solution automates the ticketing process and |

| | | |interoperates with disparate database systems. With the new system, employees are more productive, |

| | | |and the number of citations with errors has dropped to 0.5 percent. Officers can access critical |

| | | |information from databases when in the field, and the system—which can be easily modified—is highly |

| | | |available and scalable. |

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Situation

The Jose Police Department protects the nearly 1 million residents in San Jose, California, the nation’s tenth-largest city. Because San Jose consistently ranks as one of the nation’s safest big cities, the department has been able to keep the number of sworn police officers at 1,300 since 1994.

Before 2007, the department relied on a paper-based system to issue traffic and criminal citations. Prone to error and redundant due to lack of system integration, the process slowed productivity and extended the time to adjudication to 60 days. Officers had to handwrite citations, pressing hard with the pen to ensure that all four copies were legible. Officers also had to take the time to look up and assign an available court date. Experienced traffic officers could write a ticket in about a minute. However, it took patrol officers almost 10 minutes to write a ticket. One copy of the citation went to the offender, and the officer kept the other three until the end of his or her shift. If anything significant occurred during an incident, the officer recorded the information on a field card and filed it in a box in the office.

An employee from the records department entered the information from each citation into a database system. Approximately 10 percent of all citations had errors. If data-entry personnel detected an error, the ticket was sent back to the issuing officer. If he or she could not correct the ticket, it was thrown out.

Once the information was successfully entered into the record’s database, the third copy of the citation was sent to another office where an employee entered the information into a database on a mainframe system. The fourth copy of the citation was sent to the county courthouse, where an employee entered the information into a mainframe or a database system.

Police cars had workstations that ran the Windows® XP operating system, but the workstations could not connect to the department’s or county’s database or mainframe systems. As a result, officers in the field could not access previous criminal or traffic citation information and had to rely on dispatch to query the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) system for drivers license history. Officers were also unable to compare a suspect’s information with data from previous crimes.

In 2004, San Jose Police Chief Robert L. Davis formed a team headed by Deputy Chief in Technical Services Donald K. Anders to investigate electronic citation systems. After evaluating offerings from seven vendors, the team chose a solution from Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner 3i Infotech. Built on software from Microsoft, the solution met the department’s initial budget of U.S.$820,000. In addition, the solution was flexible and scalable, and could interoperate with the disparate databases—including the mainframes. 3i Infotech also offered comprehensive support options and the solution’s handheld devices could be easily docked on workstations.

Solution

In October 2006, 3i Infotech began work on the solution’s design. Six consultants collected information about requirements and standards from officers, records employees, and numerous agencies including the Santa Clara County Court, the California DMV, the County Chief’s Association, and the state’s Superior Court. Once the design was agreed upon, consultants installed two HP Proliant DL380 G5 Series servers to support the solution. The servers, which are clustered, run the Windows Server® 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition operating system and Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 Enterprise Edition data management software. The servers also run the TicketWorks software framework from 3i Infotech, which is built on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework.

Next, consultants used Microsoft to customize TicketWorks. The team created an interface, accessible with the Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6 Internet browser, that could access department and county databases over a new T1 line. Consultants digitized and customized citation forms, and they built a process that would automatically populate citations with information from scanned drivers licenses. Another process was built that would automatically check the records division calendar for an available court date, assign a date and time to the offender, and add the information to the citation. In addition, consultants created an electronic field card.

Consultants deployed TicketWorks and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition on 50 CN3 handheld devices from Intermec that run the Windows Mobile® operating system. Officers use the devices to capture and store citation information. TicketWorks was also installed on the workstations in 50 police cars so that officers could search databases using an existing Wi-Fi network. “The integration of systems went very smoothly,” says Ruben Chavez, Lieutenant, San Jose Police Department. “We worked closely with county employees and sent hundreds and hundreds of test citations to work out any issues. When we got to the point of deployment, we were very comfortable and confident that the data would be sent.”

After undergoing training from 3i Infotech, 50 officers began to use the new system in July 2007. Today, 222 officers use the solution, and the department expects the number of users to increase to 600 by the end of the year. Eventually, the solution will support approximately 2,500 employees.

Benefits

As a result of its electronic citation solution, the San Jose Police Department has increased productivity and reduced the number of citation errors. Employees can access information from department and county databases when out of the office, and the solution is flexible, scalable, and highly available.

Increased Productivity

Today, officers can write tickets much faster than before. Officers swipe the offender’s license with a Windows Mobile CN3 handheld device, and all of the information is automatically recorded in the appropriate citation fields. Drop-down boxes offer possible answers to other fields so that officers do not have to look up information such as violation codes. The system also automatically assigns a court date. After the citation is complete, the officer uses a handheld Zebra portable printer to print a copy of the citation for the offender, and the citation is automatically transferred to the department’s databases. Because ticket information no longer has to be manually entered, the department has been able to reassigned two full-time employees from the records office.

Commenting on the new process, Chavez notes, “Traffic officers who use these devices can write a ticket a lot faster than a handwritten citation. Very experienced traffic officers probably can write one in 45 seconds. A patrol officer probably will take anywhere from three to five minutes to write a citation.” Day or night, officers can contact one of the many patrol trainers with questions.

Electronic traffic citations are automatically sent to county databases. However, paper copies of criminal citations are still mailed to the county. “There are a lot of legal loopholes that still have to be addressed and the criminal justice system is very reluctant to poke a hole into any system,” explains Chavez.

Reduced Citation Errors by 95 Percent

The automated system has dramatically reduced ticket errors. Because electronic citations prompt officers to provide all required information and drop-down boxes list possible answers to many fields, officers do not have to spend time correcting citations. The improved accuracy also means that 99 percent of them can be adjudicated.. “Before July 1, 2007, about 10 percent of the total number of citations contained errors,” notes Chavez. “Our new system from 3i Infotech and Microsoft has dramatically reduced that number. Today, the citation error rate is about 0.5 percent.”

Improved Data Access and Collaboration

Officers can use a handheld device or the workstation in a patrol car to query databases so that police in the field can quickly learn if a person is a repeat offender or if the person has an outstanding arrest warrant. “The fact that we can search databases from our cars is a tremendous leap forward in our ability to investigate and solve crime,” says Chavez. “If an officer responds to a robbery and the witnesses say that the suspect left in a red Ford Grand Torino and he was a particular ethnicity and gender, you can actually query the database for those specific characteristics.” In the past, an investigator would have had to perform such a query from the office days after the crime had been committed.

Moving forward, police databases will also include information from electronic field cards. “With the new solution, information from electronic field cards is immediately accessible in the car,” notes Chavez. “So an officer can query the database and gather information from previous contacts. That ability does help solve crime and help identify criminal activity.”

The county court house also receives citation information more quickly. As a result, the time to adjudication has been significantly reduced. “Before, we had to adjudicate in 60 days,” says Chavez. “Now citations are immediately sent over to the court so we could adjudicate within days. However, the process has been changed to adjudicate in 45 days.”

Maintained 99.999 Percent Availability

The clustered servers running SQL Server 2005 help to ensure that the new system is available 99.999 percent of the time. If one server should fail, the other server takes over. The configuration allows administrators to perform system maintenance during normal business hours. In addition, 3i Infotech monitors the system continuously, and consultants can remotely diagnose and fix issues at any time.

“Obviously with technology you’re going to have issues every so often,” notes Chavez. “3i Infotech catches issues—not only with our systems but also with the county’s. If there is anything that needs to be looked at, consultants immediately address and fix it.”

Provided for Scalability and Flexibility

The solution is easy to modify and forms can be changed in minutes. Under the direction of Deputy Chief in Bureau Technical Services Christopher Moore, the department will soon give employees the ability to generate reports on incidents such as car accidents, citations for driving under the influence, and car impounds. 3i Infotech is using the built-in reporting features in SQL Server 2005 to create the reports. “There are a lot of other companies across the nation that offer electronic ticketing systems,” says Chavez. “What’s unique about our system is that we’ve incorporated quite a few additional features such as the field interview cards and reporting capabilities.”

Within a few months, the solution will include a fingerprinting feature. “Officers in the field will be able to capture a thumbprint and run it against our fingerprint database to identify a subject,” Chavez concludes. “That ability is another huge step forward for solving crime, identifying criminal activity, and determining the identity of someone in the field whom you cannot otherwise identify.”

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio

For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:

servers/default.mspx

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis software that enables organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information and confidently run today’s increasingly complex business applications. By providing high availability, security enhancements, and embedded reporting and data analysis tools, SQL Server 2005 helps companies gain greater insight from their business information and achieve faster results for a competitive advantage. And, because it’s part of the Microsoft server product portfolio, SQL Server 2005 is designed to integrate seamlessly with your other server infrastructure investments.

For more information about SQL Server 2005, go to:

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| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Server Product Portfolio

− Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition

− Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition

− Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition

■ Windows Mobile

■ Technologies

− Microsoft

− Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 |Microsoft .NET Compact Framework

Hardware

■ Intermec CN3 mobile devices

■ HP Proliant DL380 G5 Series server computers

■ Zebra portable printers

Partners

■ 3i Infotech | |

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published December 2008 | | |

For More Information

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For more information about 3i Infotech products and services, call (732) 225-4242 or visit the Web site at:

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For more information about the San Jose Police Department, call (408) 277-8900 or visit the Web site at:



“Before July 1, 2007, about 10 percent of the total number of citations contained errors. Our new system from 3i Infotech and Microsoft has dramatically reduced that number. Today, the citation error rate is about 0.5 percent.”

Ruben Chavez, Lieutenant, San Jose Police Department

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“The integration of systems went very smoothly.... When we got to the point of deployment, we were very comfortable and confident that the data would be sent.”

Ruben Chavez, Lieutenant, San Jose Police Department

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