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ditions, visibility, accident information, as well as other mitigating circumstances. There is also an officer notation field, where the officer can add additional infor- mation that will appear on the face of the ticket. The "Bond" section has check boxes for the officer to select in what form bond will be secured, such as by bond card, credit card, cash, signature or other means. The system will recognize if the vio- lation warrants a mandatory court ap- pearance or not, due to parameters set by the Cook County Clerk's Office. If a court appearance is required, the sys- tem will notate this on the ticket, along with the officer's court date, time and room number. This removes the oppor- tunity for error on the officer's part, as it's automated. The system also can recognize the difference between a traffic violation, and an arrestable offense, which may warrant a mandatory court appearance or different court information. The final section allows the officer to digitally sign the ticket. Under the former system, the infor- mation – hastily written by the officer out in traffic and trying to observe driver behavior – is now available in printed format. This eliminates any translation by a court employee, which led to mistakes in the recording of times of appearance or court rooms. Early Reports of Success "I love the system. Anyone who can use a computer can use this system," Williams stated. To date, the County Clerk's Office has had no complaints regarding the installation of or the ap- plication of the system to ticket writing. Hon. Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, said early reports of the system justify her goal of "electronically integrating jus- tice across the county, one system, one agency at a time" until all 128 munici- palities are employing the new system. The initial cost of the system in Cook County was $905,000. Cook County picked up the cost of the new system with the exception of the small, com- pact thermal printer, which prints the actual ticket. Brown estimates that once the system has been fully implemented, the Clerk's Office will save the $195,000 cost to Click on EInfo at - www.lawandordermag.com reader service #31 www.lawandordermag.com 61 printing tickets as well as $438,000 in data entry costs for the personnel for- merly needed for the encoding of data. That is an annual savings of $633,000. This hard savings is in addition to offi- cer safety, system efficiency, immediate access and data-sharing. Sharon F. Kissane, Ph.D., is a graduate of the Citizens Police Academy in Schaumburg, Ill. She may be reached at kissanecom@sbcglobal.net. Photos by Sandra Lee Amen Sullivan. LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting www.lawandordermag.com