PARIS

Project Description

TraCS, which is an acronym for Traffic and Criminal Software, is a national model for the design and implementation of electronic forms to support law enforcement. Currently, TraCS is in various stages of deployment in 17 US states and two Canadian provinces. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Department of Public Safety, and Highway Safety Office are currently collaborating with the University of Oklahoma ITS Laboratory to deploy a pre-pilot TraCS program in OHP Troops A, S, and Y. An initial suite of electronic forms and communications technologies are being field tested with six OHP Troopers during summer, 2006.

TraCS offers significant benefits to a Trooper or Police Officer in the field. During a contact, a Trooper can use advanced devices including barcode readers, magnetic stripe readers, and GPS receivers to automatically scan driver licenses, vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and geographic coordinates. These data are automatically populated into electronic forms such as the Oklahoma uniform crash report form and uniform citation form. There is no need to retype redundant information on multiple forms. Validation rules are built into the electronic forms to assure the accuracy of the information right up front, thereby dramatically reducing the effort required to quality assure the data later at the Highway Safety Office and Department of Transportation. Information can be instantaneously transmitted to DPS and court computer systems, thereby dramatically reducing the latency of the current "paper and pencil" system. TraCS is a win/win solution for stakeholders at every stage of the traffic records management process.