Traffic tickets going digital in New Westminster

An RCMP officer writes a speeding ticket during a speed enforcement campaign in May.

Drivers pulled over in New Westminster might notice tickets are being filed a bit differently.

Police in the city are adopting an electronic ticketing initiative that will eventually be rolled out to all municipal police and RCMP across B.C.

Part of the province's road safety strategy, e-ticketing helps police by automatically filling the information needed for a ticket when swiping a driver's licence. The ticket is then printed from the police vehicle and information is shared directly with ICBC.

"Drivers can pay their ticket online," said Sgt. Greg Smith of New Westminster Police Department's traffic unit in a news release.

"Thanks to the auto-fill feature this will result in a less time pulled off to the side of the road with fewer administrative errors."

This initiative comes after a 2018 pilot project where police in five municipalities across the province trialed e-ticketing.

With the new system, police will no longer need to mail the tickets and affected third parties won't have to manually re-enter details in their databases.

However, under the current system used in other municipalities, drivers wait around for officers to enter the information into a computer, run a check then print a ticket and come back to the car.

"Basically it's moving ticketing of speeders into the 21st century," Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said during the pilot.

E-tickets will be distributed in New Westminster throughout the summer. The program will continue to expand as more vehicles get the e-ticketing technology.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Kendra Mangione