Issuing traffic tickets could become a lot easier for police if a Southern police district trial of new hand-held e-ticketing machines is successful.
The machines, which look like eftpos machines and operate in a similar way to ticketing machines council parking wardens use, will be trialled first in the Southern police district.
The trial will start in about a fortnight.
The introduction of the machines is one of the first of several measures by police to try to reduce the amount of paperwork.
Police technology and solutions manager Anne Speden told the Dominion Post the technology behind the machines was more complex than council systems because the police machines link with national intelligence systems, so officers could check the registered owners of vehicles through the machines rather than over the police radio network.
The electronic ticketing system also meant officers' workloads would be lightened because they would no longer have to key in handwritten information later.
The police would test 30 machines made by two manufacturers.
Southern district road policing manager Inspector Andrew Burns said southern road police had had training on the machines.
