
The Los Angeles Police Department is scheduled to roll out a system for issuing speeding citations electronically from handheld devices. Officers retrieve the identification data encoded on the magnetic strip of a driver’s license by swiping the card on their handheld. The driver’s information pops up, and the officer toggles through several screens to fill out the citation. The offender signs the citation on the handheld, much like people do for package delivery. Officers can then print the citation on the spot via a wireless printer. The officers upload wirelessly all of the citations they have issued for the day at the end of their shifts. The data is transmitted daily to Los Angeles’s municipal court system for processing and billing, thereby automating a manual process.