News Updates

Ticket Happy

The debut of the Tulsa Police Department's electronic ticketing system took place last week, with 19 motorcycle patrol officers using hand-held models to issue warning citations to local motorists on Jan. 14.

Capt. Jonathan Brooks said the testing phase for the units was expected to last just a couple of days.

"Next week, we expect to be 100 percent live," he said on Jan. 15. "We'll be out of the test mode, and we'll be writing full-blown citations."

The purchase of the units and their implementation was covered in an ordinance sponsored by District 7's John Eagleton that was adopted in April 2009 by the Tulsa City Council. The units cost about $3,500 apiece and are being purchased through unallocated funds left over from a previous third-penny sales tax and through general obligation bond programs.

The devices are designed to make citation writing a much easier and faster operation for officers, potentially reducing a 20-minute traffic stop to as little as five minutes. Each device has a bar-code reader through which a motorist's license is scanned, recording all the driver's information without the officer having to record it by hand. The information is also filed electronically in the City Clerk's Office. An accompanying printer allows the officer to provide the driver with a hard copy of the citation.

Eagleton was thrilled to report the units were finally on the street last week.

"I am giddy as a schoolgirl," he said.

Brooks said representatives of the company that sold the units were in Tulsa last week to help with the testing period and assist in any transitions that might be required. He said the units drew a mixed response from motorcycle officers at first, but "The more they use them, the more they like them."

Brooks raved about the impact the units have had on efficiency and error reduction, as well as their convenience. He expects the city's clerical staff will appreciate them, as well.

"There's no trying to decipher someone's handwriting, no leaving a box blank," he said.

Eagleton has said he hopes to see more citations issued with the devices in place, a trend he believes would make city streets much safer. He also cited the positive impact an increased number of citations would have on the city's budget.

Plans originally called for the purchase of 50 of the e-ticket devices, though Brooks noted that the city's budget situation has left that plan somewhat up in the air.

At some point, he said, the devices will be available to all patrol officers in Tulsa--hand-held units for motorcycle officers and part of the onboard computer for those who drive squad cars.

"Eventually, we'll be at the point when that is the standard method of issuing a citation," he said.

Disaster-Preparedness Forecast

Attendance at a recent public meeting designed to gather input on a disaster-preparedness plan for many of the city's cultural and historical institutions was impacted by bad weather; although the leader of the one of the groups compiling the plan said many of the responses were beneficial.

Tim Lovell--executive director of Tulsa Partners Inc., a nonprofit firm that has been subcontracted to work on the issue through R.D. Flanagan & Associates--said poor weather no doubt kept attendance at a Jan. 7 public meeting at the Philbrook Museum of Art to a minimum. But he was pleased with what he heard from those who braved the elements.

"The feedback we received was positive," he said. "A lot of what we heard was more details, that this should be a continuing process and not end with the making of a plan and that additional people need to be involved with the plan."

Lovell and others are putting together a pilot plan, the first in the nation, for saving Tulsa's cultural and historically significant treasures in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. The process--which was inspired by the experience of many cultural and historical organizations in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina--began in November 2008 with meetings of local museum curators and will culminate soon with the finalization of the plan, which will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Administration for approval.

Lovell expects that to happen in about a month, although he said he doesn't know when federal officials will act on the plan, enabling Tulsa to move toward implementing it.

"I really don't have any idea," he said. "This is a pilot program that has not been done before, so it's hard to know."