Policing in Massachusetts has gone high-tech.

Gone are the days when a Massachusetts police officer would pull out a citation book to write you up for one offense or another. Much of the routine work performed by police, including writing citations, has entered the computer age.

The Merit Rating Board of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles says 321 of 351 local Massachusetts police departments and the Massachusetts State Police are now using e-citations rather than paper citations exclusively.

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State House News Service (SHNS) reports that Merti Rating Board Director Sonja Singleton told board members, "Everyone that was going to roll out with the e-citations has been rolled out with e-citations."

SHNS says the number of electronic citations issued in Massachusetts has exceeded 80 percent of all citations each month during 2024.

New Bedford Police Assistant Deputy Chief Scott Carola said the department has been using e-citations for a while now.

"Traffic has been using it since 2018, and the rest of the department started in 2023," Carola said. "It is all done on the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) web."

"Instead of the officer handwriting a ticket, they are able to do it more quickly, digitally," he said.

New Bedford Police Among The Departments Using E-Citations
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Carola said there are several benefits to issuing citations digitally.

"The citations are legible for the operator, court and the Registry to read," he said. "The officer isn't looking down writing the citations. Instead, the officer is looking up at the computer, which is a touch screen, therefore they have their eyes on the vehicle stopped for more of the time."

The electronic system saves time as well.

"The officer doesn't have to look through his law book for the chapter and section; it's all in the system, so just type in keywords," Carola said. "The time of the traffic stop is cut down dramatically; they are averaging no more than five minutes."

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