Database construction...

Hello all and thanks in advance for your help...

My name is Andy Shank and I am a State Trooper in Indiana. I used to be in IT consulting in New York City so I have pretty well-rounded computer skills in addition to knowing how to arrest people :) Here is/are my issue(s)...

Even today in 2003 all cops (at least in Indiana) are still handwriting out each and every ticket and warning we hand out. The more time I spend sitting behind someone writing them tickets, the more time available to get creamed by a semi or shot by the person getting the tickets. Most state troopers here have laptops in our cars and the numbers are growing of us who have printers.

Does anyone have any experience with constructing a program that would allow us to type in the violator's personal information, vehicle information, violation information, etc. etc. and print it out that way? If we could get a system like this going, I think it could cut the average traffic stop's time in half. Being able to transfer the basic identifying information from one ticket to the next (instead of having to rewrite it all) would save enormous amounts of time. Here are the basic requirements I have in my mind of this fledgling system:

1. Must be able to compile all information from the tickets in a tidy format to be submitted to prosecutors office and police department.
2. Must be able to individually number each ticket so each ticket written statewide can be tracked. As daunting as this first seemed, if each officer's identification number could be a component of the number to ensure no repetition. i.e. if my ID number were 9876 the first ticket I write on the system could be 00001-9876, the second 00002-9876, etc.
3. And of course, must be able to be printed out into some sort of template form at the scene so it looks like a ticket/warning.

I apologize for the length of this, it's the first chance I've had to really flesh it out. If anyone could point me in the write direction as far as applications to use or otherwise, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Andy Received on Mon Jun 09 2003 - 00:27:37 CDT