MONROE - More than five years after adding computerized traffic and citation records to its squad cars - becoming the first department in the county to do so - Monroe police say the system has helped cut down on paperwork.
And now Green County is planning to add the system to its sheriff's department patrol cars.
For Monroe, the Traffic and Criminal Software, or TraCS, added proficiency to work flow when it was introduced in the field in the fall of 2005, police said.
TraCS is a software program that provides officers the ability to record and retrieve vital information electronically. The system handles traffic citations, ordinance violations and other offenses, and combines laptop computers, PCs in a central office and data communications that can be retrieved wherever - and whenever - an incident occurs.
Monroe police Lt. Mark Rohloff said the program, in addition to being more efficient, has helped cut down on errors. In fact, he said, the error rate on crash reports dropped to less than 1 percent, Rohloff said.
Those improvements are attributed to the automatic validation of the form before closing the file.
"It's a matter of proficiency," Rohloff said, adding that it can take just a few minutes now to process a traffic violation, as opposed to the average 15 minutes it took before TraCS.
"Most of our experienced officers can do a citation in less than a minute," he added.
It costs $2,000 to $7,000 to equip a squad car for the TraCs program, depending on the options chosen and existing equipment. However, no money was spent by the police department to implement the program.
Monroe police used a pair of grants to fund it - one was used to help purchase the equipment and system in 2005, while the second was used to upgrade computers in the squads a few years later.
Here's how TraCS works: The police officer collects all information on a lap top, where the program checks for any errors before sending the report back to police department. At the department, reports are checked again for any errors before they are transmitted to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation; to the court system, known as the Consolidated Court Automation Program; and finally to the county-wide records management system, Spillman.
While Monroe was the first in Green County to implement the TraCs program, other departments soon followed, including Monticello, Belleville, Brodhead, Albany, and New Glarus in the last five years.
Green County Sheriff's department will implement the Badger TraCS program this month, officials said.
All law enforcement agencies are required to attend a two-day Badger TraCS training program to become licensed.
And now Green County is planning to add the system to its sheriff's department patrol cars.
For Monroe, the Traffic and Criminal Software, or TraCS, added proficiency to work flow when it was introduced in the field in the fall of 2005, police said.
TraCS is a software program that provides officers the ability to record and retrieve vital information electronically. The system handles traffic citations, ordinance violations and other offenses, and combines laptop computers, PCs in a central office and data communications that can be retrieved wherever - and whenever - an incident occurs.
Monroe police Lt. Mark Rohloff said the program, in addition to being more efficient, has helped cut down on errors. In fact, he said, the error rate on crash reports dropped to less than 1 percent, Rohloff said.
Those improvements are attributed to the automatic validation of the form before closing the file.
"It's a matter of proficiency," Rohloff said, adding that it can take just a few minutes now to process a traffic violation, as opposed to the average 15 minutes it took before TraCS.
"Most of our experienced officers can do a citation in less than a minute," he added.
It costs $2,000 to $7,000 to equip a squad car for the TraCs program, depending on the options chosen and existing equipment. However, no money was spent by the police department to implement the program.
Monroe police used a pair of grants to fund it - one was used to help purchase the equipment and system in 2005, while the second was used to upgrade computers in the squads a few years later.
Here's how TraCS works: The police officer collects all information on a lap top, where the program checks for any errors before sending the report back to police department. At the department, reports are checked again for any errors before they are transmitted to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation; to the court system, known as the Consolidated Court Automation Program; and finally to the county-wide records management system, Spillman.
While Monroe was the first in Green County to implement the TraCs program, other departments soon followed, including Monticello, Belleville, Brodhead, Albany, and New Glarus in the last five years.
Green County Sheriff's department will implement the Badger TraCS program this month, officials said.
All law enforcement agencies are required to attend a two-day Badger TraCS training program to become licensed.