BENSON POLICE DEPARTMENT
303 EAST CHURCH STREET
BENSON, NC 27504
TELEPHONE 919-894-3616 FAX 919-207-1993
- - -PRESS RELEASE- - -
May 4, 2005
In cooperation with the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, Interplat Solutions, and the Johnston County Clerk of Courts Office, the Benson Police Department would like to announce the arrival and implementation of eCitation by our department. To our knowledge, we are the first, and only municipal agency in Johnston County to be using it.
In the last several months, our agency has implemented several technological improvements, to assist our officers in performing their duties. In February of this year, we began the process of switching from paper citations, which the public is familiar with, to electronically issued citations. Instead of handwriting a citation from a citation book, our officers will now be able to type all the necessary information into the eCitation program, which was developed by Interplat Solutions, and will also be able to print a copy for the driver on a printer installed in the patrol vehicle. The officer will then submit the citation electronically to the Johnston County Clerk of Courts Office, who will then prepare it for the scheduled court date.
One advantage of eCitation is that the Clerk of Courts Office no longer has to manually enter the officers' citation information into their database, since the officers submit the citation directly to it. Another advantage is that the officer will save time by typing the citation, and the citation will be easier for all involved to read. The normal paper citations can, and will, still be used, but only for offenses that someone could be arrested for, such as DWI, Driving With a Revoked License, etc.
The eCitation software itself was created several years ago by the State of North Carolina, the NC State Highway Patrol, and Interplat Solutions, using grant funds from the NC Governor's Highway Safety Program, and is distributed free of charge to all interested law enforcement agencies in North Carolina. The NC Administrative Office of the Courts has a goal of statewide utilization of eCitation, and they assisted our agency greatly by providing 10 Hewlett-Packard mobile printers, valued at $3500, at no charge to us, that will be in the patrol vehicles. Interplat Solutions also assisted our agency by providing the training; again at no charge to us.
On Thursday, April 28th, several Benson officers, to include Traffic Officer Danny Lucas, Lt. Greg Percy, Lt. Randy Beasley, and Officer Shannon Hodges attended a training session for eCitation, and went "online" with the Johnston County Clerk of Court at the conclusion of the training. The remainder of our officers will attend eCitation training in the near future, and all officers will then be able to utilize our latest technological upgrade.
For more information regarding eCitation, please contact Traffic Officer Danny Lucas, or Lt. Greg Percy at 919-894-3616.