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City staff recommend buying 60 e‑citation devices as step toward an enterprise paperless ticketing system
Summary
A city study found nearly 54% of FY25 citations were already electronic and identified a short‑term opportunity to convert roughly 22,000 paper tickets to e‑citations; staff proposed buying 60 devices (budgeted at about $227,000) now and running an RFP for a long‑term enterprise solution that could be implemented as early as October 2027.
Kate Kennison, chief innovation officer, presented a study of the city's citation process that reviewed FY25 data, workflow maps and vendor options. The study began with a 'universe' of 217,542 violations (tickets can include multiple violations), and staff scoped the analysis to specific ticket types for SAPD and municipal court. Kennison reported 97,324 electronic citations and 84,465 paper citations in the FY25 data used for the study — about 54% electronic overall.
Time‑and‑workflow measures showed municipal court data entry averaged 4 minutes 48 seconds per ticket; staff estimated converting roughly 22,000 paper tickets to electronic would save an estimated 736 officer hours (about 0.35 FTE in traffic) and roughly 1,746 court clerk hours annually (about 0.84 FTE). Electronic tickets also resolved more quickly (median resolution fell from 73 days for paper to about 38 days for electronic) and showed higher payment rates (63% for electronic vs. 38% for paper), which staff estimated could increase annual collections by roughly $300,000–$500,000.
As a short‑term step, ITSD plans to procure 60 additional e‑citation devices (staff cited a budget line of ~$227,000 already in the fiscal year), with devices expected to be in place by the end of July to capture immediate conversion opportunities. Staff emphasized that these purchases are a stopgap while the city conducts a fair solicitation to evaluate enterprise e‑citation vendors; the mature enterprise solution could integrate QR‑based and paperless delivery models and may require an RFP and significant integration work.
Council members raised equity and accessibility concerns about QR‑only delivery and asked that digital options include a print or paper fallback for residents without smartphones. Staff agreed and recommended pilot testing, community feedback and vendor selection that covers integration with municipal court records (Tyler / ENCODE) and data‑sharing considerations with Bexar County.
No final procurement decision beyond the short‑term devices was made at the meeting; staff will move forward with the 60‑device purchase and prepare a solicitation for an enterprise solution.
