by Jolene Toves

Guam - Clear, complete and more concise that's the goal of the Guam Police Department's Highway Patrol Division's E-Citation Pilot Program.

Starting about a year ago the program met several bumps on the road not enabling officers to use the system. Finally after ironing out the glitches, receiving the necessary equipment and updating the necessary coordinating systems, the Highway Patrol Division is out in full force. GPD Highway Patrol Division Officer Glenn Ogo said, "We received 20 ToughBooks now ten cases and ten Bluetooth printer devices."

15 Highway Patrol officers are using the devices making the switch from paper to electronic. Today's speed trap marks the fourth operation in which the officers utilized the E-Ticket Tough Book and Bluetooth printers which have made issuing citations faster than before. "So far it has been good we have been using it since this morning and it has been running very good right now the server is up and running and the Bluetooth printers are ready to go so far it has been good today," he said.

Officer Ogo adds that the devices have been in trial for a week. As we've reported the e-citations requires less paper work, less steps cutting down time, reducing a violator's ability to contest a citation based on illegible handwriting of an officer.

With the implementation of e-tickets Officer Ogo says new features are being updated to the system. "We have a device where we can also plug in the individual or the violators driver's license number press send and it will bring up that person's name address whatever it may be all his personal information which is hooked up to the department of motor vehicle driver's license database," he said.

Ogo says this feature automatically plugs in the violators information so the GPD officer does not have to.

Meanwhile GPD is also negotiating with Data Management Resources to add access to the License Plate Database, which will allow similar autofill capabilities, further reducing the time it takes to write a citation so GPD can focus more time on enforcing the laws.