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The Bowie Police Department's adoption of a new electronic reporting system is expected to make processing tickets more efficient, according to the department's chief.

The department is purchasing reporting system software that will allow officers to send tickets — from those issued for speeding citations to accident reports — to the police station electronically rather than requiring officers to drop off the paperwork and tickets they've written at the end of each shift, said Bowie Police Chief Katherine Perez.

Administrative staff will no longer have to spend time scanning and copying the tickets to enter them into the department's system, allowing the department to cut back on its paper usage, Perez said.

Through August, the police department had written 2,380 tickets for moving violations and parking citations this year, according to police records.

"Using technology to become more efficient is just a wise decision," Perez said of the new system. "It just makes you more efficient with the officers you have."

She did not have an estimate of how much the technology would save the department in costs or time.

The department plans to purchase the technology from Advanced Public Safety Inc. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., in the next week. Perez expects officers to implement the new technology in the next several months.

The $60,000 system will be paid for through a $120,000 grant received from the U.S. Department of Justice. The remaining $60,000 from the grant will be used to purchase equipment and software for 35 e-citation units, which allow officers to pull information from a driver's license for a ticket by swiping the license through the device and printing the ticket in their squad car. The department currently has four such units.

"The writing of tickets, for example, is fairly time-consuming, and this should expedite that," said Bowie City Manager David Deutsch.

Information such as the driver's name and address is automatically entered on a ticket so the police officer does not have to handwrite it. The device also runs a records check on the individual, bringing up any outstanding tickets or license suspensions and alerting officers to any criminal charges.

Other local police departments, including the Prince George's County department and the Landover Hills department, are considering purchasing e-citation devices, said spokespeople from the departments.

E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.