The Los Angeles Police Department is planning to roll out a new system to issue speeding tickets electronically using Symbol Technologies PDAs. The intention is to improve the process of issuing tickets by making it both quicker and less error-prone. Say you get pulled over: The police officer will retrieve your information by swiping the magnetic strip on your driver’s license. The officer fills out the necessary details (such as the offence, location, etc) and you sign it on the handheld (like you do for many package deliveries these days). The officer uses a wireless printer to issue your ticket and you’re back on not-so-merry-anymore way.
Later, all the ticket data is downloaded to the secure police network wirelessly through short-range wireless access points on police buildings.
There are further plans to continue to build additional applications on the Symbol devices.