Wilton has joined Lyndeborough in its implementation of a new electronic form of submitting traffic violations, with help from a state grant.

Wilton Selectmen signed off on a $2,700 grant from the Department of Safety to install three eTicket systems in three of the department’s squad cars.

“It has a couple of benefits,” explained Police Chief Brent Hautanen. “The main one being that it improves officer safety. Every minute a squad car is on the side of the road, it increases the chance that they might be hit by a passing vehicle.”

The eTicket process streamlines things administratively, because an officer is able to enter ticket information into the system, which prints the ticket instead of an officer handwriting on. The electronic information is then able to be submitted automatically both into the department’s system and send the information to the Department of Motor Vehicles – things done today as part of the department’s administrative duties. The system also streamlines the transition of the ticket information from the Department of Motor Vehicles into the court system, as part of a coordinated effort to go paperless by the Department’s Division of State Police, Motor Vehicles, staff from the Department of Information Technology and the Judicial Branch.    

“All around, it improves our efficiency on the administrative side,” said Hautanen. 

Wilton will make an in-kind match for the grant in covering the installation cost for the equipment and training its officers in its use. 

Lyndeborough’s police department also recently accepted a grant to install two eTicket systems in their vehicles. The grants are part of a push statewide to get police departments on the system, which has been used by the state police for the past two years. 

The system is also capable of supporting eCrash, a program that would do for accident reports what eTicket does for traffic citations, which again, will save the department in processing time. 

Hautanen said that the eTicket system should be in place within the next few weeks. 

 

Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.