Illinois' Madison County to enact digital citation program.
Illinois' Madison County to enact digital citation program.
Madison County, Illinois, will be one of the first counties to enact a digital citation program for traffic stops, according to the Illinois Business Journal.
The electronic eCitation will use digiTICKET software, which will allow police officers to send information straight to the Circuit Clerk’s Office in Edwardsville. The program, along with two related programs, have the approval of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts.
Bond County, Illinois, which along with Madison County makes up the 3rd Judicial Circuit, has already started using the eCitation program and Madison County has been watching how the program is working. Circuit Clerk Mark Von Nida said Rex Catron, a circuit clerk in Bond County, deserves the credit for the success of the program in Bond County. Catron is the founder of Saltus Technologies which owns the digiTICKET system.
“We’re not spending money from the property tax payers: each ticket written since 2009, we’ve been collecting a $5 fee, from cases where fees have been assessed by the court,” Von Nida said. “The state legislature enacted the fee in order to promote the program.”
Von Nida wants to update squad cars with printers and scanners, allowing the officer to print out a ticket and not have to write it by hand.
“More importantly is, one of the most dangerous things a police officer does is a traffic stop," he said. "This cuts the time involved by two-thirds. Not a small thing.”
Other programs, such as eCriminal, an e-filing system, and eGuilty, a program for first time offenders 19 and over to send in a guilty plea via the internet, have also been approved by the Illinois Supreme Court.
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