Local Ontario Provincial Police officers will no longer be writing tickets out by hand.

Officers recently switched over to an e-ticketing system in order to save time, reduce paperwork, simplify the submission of documents and eliminate tickets being tossed out of court because of errors or illegible handwriting.

“It’s a great system. On average, it cuts the ticket-writing time in half,” said Const. Joe Villeneuve of the Southern Georgian Bay OPP. 

The Southern Georgian Bay OPP switched over to the new system in early October. All local officers have been trained and are now using the new method.

The simplified ticketing process starts by swiping a driver’s licence through a card reader installed in the police cruiser. This accesses a driver’s information and automatically enters all pertinent details into the e-ticket. The officer then enters in the vehicle’s licence plate, and information is pulled from the Ministry of Transportation database and also entered into the e-ticket.

“It improves the accuracy and legibility of our tickets,” said Villeneuve. “Some officers have terrible handwriting, and some officers will make mistakes. This system will not allow you to print out a ticket if there is a mistake on it.”

The electronic ticketing process also improves police record keeping. Officers now have easy access to call logs and can quickly look to see if a driver has any previous tickets or warnings.

“Everything is done electronically,” said Villeneuve, who noted that officers now have the ability to issue official warnings.

In the past, if an officer let a driver off with a warning, no paperwork would be filed. The incident wasn’t officially noted.

“(Warnings) are now recorded, and an occurrence is created in our system,” said Villeneuve.

When giving a warning, a driver will receive an piece of paper outlining the occurrence and information on the punishment that would have come had an actual ticket been issued.

All OPP vehicles have printers in the glovebox. Once the officer is done creating the ticket or warning, they print it out and give it to the driver.

Once a ticket has been printed, the officer can immediately file an electronic copy with the courts.