Cinnaminson Considers Police E-Ticketing, Palmyra Made the Move This Week

Although it won’t happen this year, the  wants to add a second license plate reader (LPR) and possibly move to an e-ticketing system.

The Palmyra Police Department this week announced their move to e-ticketing and their first LPR.

“Essentially, what we’re looking for is anything to make the officers more efficient,” said Committeeman John Rooney, liaison to the police department, who’s been working with Public Safety Director Michael P King.

Rooney brought the ideas up to township committee recently since there is extra revenue coming to the township from the court system.

“I was asking … to bring in new types of efficiency tools like the LPR car and e-ticketing, so that way, they are self-funding,” Rooney said.

Rooney is calling this year a “bubble year“ since revenue is up with the court system—he thinks some of that money can offset these new police tools.

The LPR would join another one that’s been implemented just a few months ago, Rooney said. That unit cost about $20,000 to $25,000, which included installation and training.

“That has been a very active car for us,” Rooney said. “It’s turning out it’s very efficient at catching criminals and unlicensed drivers.”

The Palmyra Police Department just installed the four-camera system on one of its patrol cars. The camera, which the police department was able to secure through a county grant, picks up license plate numbers through infrared signals.

E-tickets are becoming more popular with police departments and can be an in-car system or handheld devices. Palmyra’s system is in-car and Cinnaminson is hoping to go that route, too. The cost is a bit more for the permanent system, but maintenance costs decrease since they are installed directly in the car rather than transferred from car to car.

In Palmyra, the system is fully functional in all patrol cars. The system also helps with municipal court summonses since they are entered directly in the system from the patrol cars.

Cinnaminson is starting this process now so it could be budgeted for next year.

“We’re making sure now we don’t have any missteps in the process,” Rooney said. “There’s not many towns in Burlington County that have done it so far—we’d be in the top 10 percent of forces doing it. We just want to do it because it’s a lot more efficient.”