Police Use Electronic Ticketing to Fine More People and Increase Profits

By MassPrivateI

The opening seconds of the Saltus Technologies video says it all. Electronic tickets are about one thing, increasing productivity (profits).

“The digiTICKET electronic ticketing solution is an innovative force multiplier for Public Safety – enabling officers to quickly create and submit tickets electronically. “

Enabling police officers to write more tickets increases profits.

According to Saltus, their entire business model appears to be focused on profits.

Saltus Technologies is dedicated solely to developing and marketing digiTICKET – an eCitation solution for Public Safety agencies. Electronic ticketing provides an excellent return on investment. (Source)

Is this what policing has become? Is electronic ticketing and ticket quotas really an excellent return on investment?

Ticketing profitability measured in real-time

To convince police departments to switch to electronic ticketing, Saltus offers funding incentives or vehicles to assist them with acquiring their electronic ticketing program.

One of digiTICKET’s main selling points is that police can measure “ticketing productivity” in real-time. To emphasize that fact, Saltus mentions increased cash flow or “increased productivity” four times in their eCtitation Solutions page.

Saltus has even created the KLER Justice Solution and “eCitation Solution” to make it easier for police departments to purchase digiTICKETS.

Electronic ticketing or eCitations is so profitable that the eleven companies involved in providing ticketing to law enforcement and court systems started their own eCitation Coalition.

The coalition calls the companies profiting from digital ticketing “the best-of-the-best at making law enforcement and courts more productive.” Below is a list of the companies.

The coalition’s “Public Policy” page is dedicated to convincing states and municipalities to adopt electronic ticketing.

Cities and towns also use Municipal Collections of America (MCA) “to recover revenue from those who fail to pay their fines or debts.” MCA helps cities and towns draft new ordinances that allow them to collect old debts. (Click here & here to see a list of thirty more companies that profit from electronic ticketing worldwide.)

Police admit electronic ticketing is all about profits

Saltus’s “Customer Testimonials” section reads like a New York Times stock exchange article that focuses solely on profits.

One of the ten police department testimonials that really stood out was Police Chief Jay Porter who said, “lowering costs further by allowing agencies to combine purchasing power really shows Saltus understands the dilemma that many city budgets face.”

The other nine testimonials essentially said the same thing but used keywords like, Saltus allows them to “enhance our efforts” when it comes to ticketing more people. Or Saltus has enabled us to speed up court processing (fines).

What does all of this mean?

It means that police departments are being run like a for-profit business venture. Think about it, police departments have to turn a profit to lease surveillance gear like Stingrays, ShotSpotter, bodycams, facial recognition software, license plate readers, drones, crime prediction software and last but not least electronic ticketing.

The so-called war on terror comes at a huge price, our privacy and freedom.

You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.