Department of
Motor Vehicles
A letter from the Commissioner
As Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, one of my top three initiatives for the Department is to improve services through the use of technology. A specific objective is to increase the amount of traffic data that we collect and exchange electronically. In February 2000, DMV hosted a “kickoff meeting” to plan for the future and to undertake the necessary changes to modernize our ticket processing and accident reporting systems. Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS) has become the prominent building block in our progress toward this goal – and what a great deal of progress we have made.
- Today, State Police and local law enforcement transmit more than 80,000 e-traffic tickets per month, more than half of the TSLED ticket volume.
- Of the police reported accidents, 12-15 percent of the monthly volume are now reported thru TraCS, including more than 11,000 reports received during the month of January 2006 .
While DMV was successful in modifying NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law and changing State Regulations that authorize the format of a traffic ticket, the State Police, with the assistance of a committee of local police officials, and representatives from the Office of Court Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles commenced a national search for systems that might be used to issue traffic tickets from a mobile computer.
During this search, they came into contact with officials from the State of Iowa who had developed a Traffic and Criminal Software System (TraCS) through a Federal grant. To their credit and our benefit, they were most willing to share it with other states -- meaning one of the many advantages of this program is that the software is free. Neither states nor localities have to pay vendor fees or licensing costs to use it.
Since New York decided to implement this program, Governor Pataki's Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC), which I have the privilege of chairing, has dedicated much of its resources so that law enforcement agencies can purchase the computer hardware and printers necessary to use TraCS. Since 2004, GTSC has distributed more than $12 million in TraCS grants to law enforcement agencies throughout the state, including the State Police.
I am pleased that the State Police has invited us to participate in the New York Steering Committee, which will help ensure that TraCS continues to evolve to best meet the needs of the law enforcement community. Our state will also continue to be actively involved in the National TraCS Steering Committee, whose membership ranges from Alaska to Florida and includes several Canadian provinces. New York is very influential in this group because, though TraCS did not start here, New York has the greatest number of users and has issued tens of thousands of accident reports and hundreds of thousands of traffic tickets annually.
TraCS is becoming a valuable law enforcement tool. Law enforcement is a very difficult job under any circumstances. TraCS should make this job safer by reducing the time the personnel and vehicle are exposed during a traffic stop, and it makes the task of issuing a ticket easier. It also ensures that the information collected at a traffic stop or accident investigation is accurate, and that copies of the ticket or accident report are more legible for the public and for courts. TraCS also enables DMV to share traffic safety data more efficiently so that better decisions are made when modifying traffic enforcement and making capital improvements to the roadways.
I want to thank law enforcement agencies for all you do to keep our roadways safe and for your participation in this effort to modernize traffic systems.
Sincerely,
Nancy A. Naples
Commissioner, NYS Depart. of Motor Vehicles
Chair, Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee
