eCitation is electronic citation software developed at CARE Research & Development Laboratory (CRDL) at the University of Alabama Computer Science Department in cooperation with and sponsored by Alabama Department of Public Safety, Alabama Administrative Office of Courts and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Officers use laptops to input data into the eCitation software, and also have scanners to scan driver's license information directly into the eCitation form. The information is editable if updates need to be made and most fields have drop down boxes with selections to make entry quick and easy. The officers then print a hardcopy of the ticket to give to the defendant but they electronically submit the ticket to a server at the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC). The tickets are automatically uploaded from the server to the AOC mainframe. Once the tickets are in the mainframe, the District Court clerks can view the tickets in the system and they never have to input the ticket data.
The project involves more than just an electronic citation form and transfer process. CRDL developed a software framework called “Officer’s Desktop” that integrates a driver’s license scanning device, LETS which is a secure web-based search engine, the electronic citation form and ASPEN which is software for federal electronic reporting of commercial vehicle violations. GPS has been integrated into the desktop so officers with GPS units can capture their location and input it directly into the citation. Microsoft MapPoint is integrated and an option for those needing mapping capabilities. Information can also be exported out of e-citation and ASPEN and into an officer’s daily activity log, also integrated into the desktop. The data captured with the scanner and other data such as citation or vehicle information can easily be transferred between the applications.