OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Changes are coming to the way tickets are handed out in the City of Oshkosh.
Starting Tuesday, police are using a digital handheld device that issues electronic parking citations.
Patrol Services Bureau Captain Kelly Kent says “we were handwriting a lot of the green, paper parking citations before. And now, with the new devices, these will be computer generated parking tickets, they’ll have a different look.”
Kent notes the change will increase efficiency.
“Instead of having to manually enter hand-written tickets into a database, that’s already done because it was issued electronically to begin with.”
The new technology could lead to an increase in parking citations, according to Kelly.
“Is it possible that more tickets will be written? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
UW-Oshkosh student Abby Boville is concerned.
“It’s kind of inconvenient to come back and move your car, so I think it’ll be a little more stressful to have to think about that.”
Kent says the handheld devices will make it easier to enforce the citation that’s being issued.
“Instead of just saying you’re too close to the fire hydrant, we can now take a picture of the violation now.”
While officers and civilians may have some differing views on the departmental change, there is one thing they can agree on.
Kent notes “it can be hard to read every piece of the (handwritten) ticket. This will eliminate that problem completely. All the tickets will be legible, readable, and uniform,”
Boville says she has received one parking citation in Oshkosh.
“”The ticket that I got was pretty hard to read.”
Oshkosh Police currently has ten of the electronic devices.
