Some cops have a tendency to ticket fix, or in layman’s terms, make tickets disappear. And though it’s a sweet perk for their friends and family, it’s sorta against the law too. So! The NYPD has come up with a new tracking system that’s trying to stop tickets from magically disappearing.
How does it work? A lot of barcode scanning. Old technology! But years better than the manual system they once had. So now each ticket comes with barcodes and they get scanned at every step of the way, four times total, so it never gets “lost”.
Before any officer gets a [ticket]bundle, the tickets in it are scanned by a hand-held device by a supervisor, with each summons number forever linked to that officer’s name.
They are scanned again, immediately after an officer turns each one, or a few, in. They are scanned again before they are taken from a box in each station house by a supervisor for transport and again at borough headquarters.
The tracking system would pick up a missing ticket right away, which should curb cops from ticket fixing.
The tracking system was put in place last year to try to put a stop to the practice, and Mayor Bloomberg has put his stamp of endorsement on it. The sheer number of cases this has produced is a testament to its effectiveness. From now on, don’t expect your cop buddy to help you out anymore. [NYT]