Capitol Bureau

ALBANY — Pretty soon, the longtime practice of police writing out traffic tickets will make way to a point, click and scan.

The state is giving the go-ahead for cops to put away their ticket books and pull out their Palm Pilots to cite speeders and others who violate the rules of the road.

It means giving tickets will take less time, there will be fewer mistakes, and it will be somewhat safer for cops making traffic stops along the highways, officials said.

State Department of Motor Vehicle regulations published this week will allow police to use laptop or hand-held computers to generate what's known as an electronic ticket. It's a new system expected to spread across the state early next year.

Estimated costs for the system were not available Friday.

Instead of writing information about the driver and vehicle, officers will have a barcode scanner to read a license and registration. It'll take little more than a mouse click to include information about the officer who made the stop, violation charged, time and location.

Instead of drivers getting a copy of a ticket, they'll get a receipt.

State Police Lt. Leonard Casper, project coordinator, said it should take half the time it now takes to pull a vehicle over and write out one or more tickets with the new system.

The ticket information is then transferred directly to state computers and the courts.

"This is a major change in the way police do business," Casper said.

The same computer system — known as TRACS, for Traffic and Criminal Software — is also expected to be used for accident reports and later for filing criminal case reports. It will also be linked to a statewide radio system, giving police access to motorist and criminal information directly from patrol cars.

Besides that, said state police traffic division Maj. Jack Van Steenburg, "It'll save the courts time, and it will save the public time."

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John Milgrim can be reached at jmottaway@aol.com or (518) 463-1157.