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Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • December 10, 2014 Acting police chief eyes move to e-ticketing Midland Park Acting Police Chief Michael Powderley is looking to institute electronic ticketing in the borough and is asking the council to include start-up funds in the 2015 budget. Powderley said E-ticketing will increase safety for officers, enhance productivity and improve administra- tive accountability. Using the computer instead of writing out tickets will reduce the amount of time an officer spends on a traf- fic stop, which means the officer will spend less time parked on the side of the road at dangerous locations, Powderley said. Additionally, he said, tickets will be more legible and accurate, which is not always the case with hand-written summonses. Powderley said currently about 10 percent of tickets are dismissed by the court because they are either illeg- ible or have the wrong statute listed. On the computer, the correct statute comes up automatically based on the infraction. The e-ticketing computer connects directly with the I-COP network for licensing and other informa- tion. From the financial perspective, Powderley said buying the units outright will be better than leasing them. The cost per ticket if a unit is leased will average out at about $2 or $3 per ticket, versus just over $1 per ticket if the unit is purchased. He said he had checked with the Waldwick Police Department, which also pur- chased the units, and their officer in charge had reported no problems and no downtime. “The units will pay for themselves if we buy them,” Powderley said. He proposes purchasing three units to start at a total cost of $8,732, including software and printers. He said he’d like to add three more the follow- ing year. Powderley said the units would also provide greater accountability by allowing management to keep tabs on officers’ activities. “If we get a complaint on enforcement on a particular street, we can graph the area and support our position,” he said by way of example. If the council approves the program, Powderley said he would place one of the units with the traffic officer and the other two with junior officers. “We’ll start with three and see how it goes. We’ll get input and assess,” he said. “It will be a positive thing for Midland Park,” he added. “I think it makes good sense,” commented Council- man Mark Braunius. A decision on whether to adopt the program will be made in conjunction with the adoption of the 2015 budget.