MOUNT PLEASANT - Police Officer Jon Cvengros has cut the amount of time he spends conducting traffic stops in half.

The Mount Pleasant officer said he can finish a single-citation traffic stop in about five or six minutes and spends even less time writing municipal citations.

With the help of new software being installed in village squads, all Mount Pleasant officers will soon be as efficient as Cvengros.

Badger TraCS, or Traffic and Criminal Software, allows officers to key information into a traffic form on their laptop and then print that form right in their squad cars. "It makes it so much quicker," Cvengros said.

Mount Pleasant is the first local law enforcement agency in Racine County to have the software installed and officers training to use it, but at least five others will probably be using it by the end of the year.

TraCS has 10 different forms that officers can automatically fill in, print and electronically file with the state, right from their squad car. The forms include traffic citations, accident reports, municipal citations and warnings.

The information is then electronically sent to the state and automatically put on a person's driving record.

"It brings things up to the speed of modern technology," police Lt. Scott Geyer said.

Developed in Iowa

TraCS was developed by the state of Iowa in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and is now being used by 20 states and two Canadian provinces, according to Erin Egan, the program manager for Badger TraCS. The software was customized for the state of Wisconsin, called Badger TraCS, and made available to law enforcement agencies here in 2005.

There are about 200 law enforcement agencies in the state, or about one-third of all departments in Wisconsin, using it, Egan said.

The Mount Pleasant Police Department decided early on to look into the TraCS system, said Geyer. They are now in the process of having the software and printers installed in their fleet, and have two officers trained to use the system.

Geyer and Mount Pleasant Police Chief Tim Zarzecki said the software allows for much more accurate record keeping and quicker and safer traffic stops for officers and citizens.

"It's cleaner, more legible and more accurate," Zarzecki said.

Now, the citations are all automated. The program works in concert with the Phoenix System already used by all the law enforcement agencies in the county for report sharing and record keeping.

An officer pulls up a driver's record and license plate information, can drop that information into a citation form, choose the statute that was violated from a drop-down menu - which automatically enters the fine - and hits print.

The information is sent to the state electronically and drivers receive a legible printed citation instead of a handwritten carbon copy.

Cost of hardware

The software is free, but the equipment needed to use it is not, Egan said. Local police departments have to buy the printers for squad cars, as most are already equipped with laptops.

The state Department of Transportation worked on a getting a federal grant for several law enforcement agencies in Racine County. Mount Pleasant was already invested in the program before the grant money became available, which is why they are further along in the process than the other departments.

A federal grant in the amount of $47,436 covered the cost of printers and their installation into the Mount Pleasant squads.

"(The state) made it practical to do it," Geyer said.

The Racine County Sheriff's Department, Racine, City of Burlington, Caledonia and Sturtevant police departments are all in the beginning stages of having the equipment installed and their officers trained to use it. Egan said training for those agencies will probably take place in October or November.

Every agency has to customize the software to work for their own specific needs, Egan said. There have been kinks when

departments are just starting out, however, she said that once those issues are worked out, officers really seem to like the system a lot.

Also aids safety

Cvengros said its not just a more efficient system, but also safer for officers and drivers.

He said he can keep a better eye on a vehicle he's pulled over without having his head bent over for 10 minutes while handwriting a citation. With the laptop at steering wheel height, Cvengros can always keep his eyes on the vehicle he's stopped.

He said officers using the software also spend less time on the side of the road.

"When people are driving by (a traffic stop), everyone on the road is looking," Cvengros said. That can cause crashes. "They quicker you can get back on the road, the better for the safety of everyone on the road," he said.