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Mobile traffic fine system launched

By Bontle Moeng, ITWeb trainee journalist
Johannesburg, 28 Sept 2005

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) has launched a mobile summons printing and warrant faxing system that will enable traffic officers to re-issue summonses and produce warrant copies to traffic offenders on the road.

The JMPD has partnered with 2Big Mobile Applications, a black economic empowerment company that provides mobile software applications, to implement the system.

The system is part of 2Big Mobile`s Integrated Information System (I2MS), a five-part project, of which three phases have now been implemented.

The first phase provides the JMPD with the functionality to check for outstanding fines by entering a car`s registration number on a cellphone. Phase two monitors and tracks police vehicles.

The mobile fine printing facility is the third phase of the project. It was rolled out this week after a three-week pilot project.

Four JMPD-branded trailers, each containing a laptop, fax machine and printer, are connected to an information database using general packet radio service (GPRS). The trailers will be parked alongside roads and fines can be printed on the spot.

Coming next, says the JMPD, is a mobile fine payment system and the launch of a portal for online fine payments.

"2Big Mobile Applications has been issued an 18-month contract. Johannesburg is the only city in Africa that is using the system and we are hoping other cities will follow soon," says Edna Mamonyane, JMPD spokesperson.

2Big Mobile director Mokgatle Maesela says he cannot comment on the value of the deal yet. "The total cost of the project can only be determined as soon as other modules of the system are fully developed. We are hoping to have the full system by the end of 2006."

Maesela says a portal will be launched in two weeks and motorists can check if summonses and warrants are outstanding.

"We have been trying to close the legal loopholes in the traffic and by-law enforcement system and this new system will address those challenges," says Johannesburg chief of Metro Police Chris Ngcobo.

A recent report by the JMPD has shown there are about 750 000 unresolved traffic cases due to motorists not receiving their traffic fines or summonses at their residential addresses.

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