Brief: Scotch Plains Police to Implement 'E-Ticketing'

Well, there’s good news and bad news for Scotch Plains drivers. The good news: a new electronic ticketing system that the plans to introduce this fall is expected to increase both revenue and efficiency. The bad news: because the "e-tickets" will be printed by in-car computers and electronically catalogued, the days of escaping tickets due to indecipherable or sun-bleached hand-writing will soon come to an end.

“No longer will there be a problem in court if the ticket is illegible or faded,” Police Chief Brian Mahoney said during the Mayor and Township Council’s monthly conference meeting Wednesday night. “These problems often lead to judges dismissing charges. With this new system, that will no longer be possible.”

Closing this loophole will increase the number of effective tickets by about 10 percent, Mahoney said. The department typically hands out 6,000 tickets per year.

Replacing hand-written ticket books with an electronic system will reduce the time needed to process tickets by about 400 hours annually, Mahoney said. It will also allow offenders to pay their tickets online.

The system is also expected to enhance officer safety: instead of standing on the side of the road writing a ticket, an officer can write and print the ticket from inside his or her cruiser, Mahoney said.

Mahoney and Township Manager Christopher Marion said they expect to implement the system by September.