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Ticket backlog raises a fear of bad drivers

The new clerk of court says more than 41,000 citations haven't been entered into the state's database.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published January 19, 2005

TAMPA - At first, the problem seemed a technicality.

The status of traffic offenses against several Hillsborough motorists were not up to date on a state database regularly used by law enforcement.

Now it appears that more than 41,000 Hillsborough cases are out of date, and county officials worry the foulup is allowing unsafe drivers to remain behind the wheel.

"When I first heard about this, my reaction was, "My goodness, these people are on the street driving, and we need to correct it as soon as possible,"' said new Hillsborough Clerk of Court Pat Franks, who was sworn in Jan. 10.

The backlog occurred because citations issued to drivers contained errors such as a wrong date of birth or driver's license number. The state, which collects such data from all 67 counties, sent the citations back to Hillsborough for corrections.

They didn't get fixed. In fact, Frank says many of the estimated 41,000 citations might have been left under a desk in the clerk's office. Some date as far back as December 2003, and some for cases as serious as drunken driving.

Even as workers hurry to correct the mistakes, Frank is trying to figure out how so many tickets went unfixed for so long. Did workers just stop processing the citations, and did a supervisor know? Did they simply become overloaded and fall behind?

She also wonders how many drivers have gotten off easy during a traffic stop because their latest citation or license suspension wasn't recorded by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

"I wish I could tell you how the backlog happened," Frank said. "We were told that at some point there was a 3-foot-high stack of papers, and everyone just walked around it. Obviously, there was no supervision. The problem goes right to the top, I think."

Her predecessor, longtime clerk Richard Ake, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Helene Marks, Ake's former in-house counsel, referred questions to Ake and current clerk's office administrators.

Citations and penalties are recorded by the Florida DMV through a multistep process, and county clerk's offices play a crucial role.

Every day, employees of the clerk's office electronically record new traffic citations and the outcome of existing cases, said Peter Flynn, director for the Hillsborough clerk's office.

Each night, the clerk's office sends three electronic files to Tallahassee. One file contains a list of the new citations; the other has dispositions for existing cases; the third lists drivers whose licenses have been suspended.

Julie Baker, spokeswoman for the DMV, said the files first are checked by the Florida Association of Court Clerks, then by the DMV. If the information is correct, it's stored in the state database that law enforcement uses to check someone's driving history.

"But if at any point we detect errors, the citation is sent back to the county clerk's office," Baker said.

There are a number of reasons why a citation can't be processed right away, Baker said. It might list the wrong sex or birth date for the driver; the description of the offense may not match the traffic violation cited by the officer.

In some cases, it's a matter of one little box that a clerk's employee didn't fill in before sending the electronic file to Tallahassee.

Clerks are supposed to fix the mistakes themselves or work with the ticketing agency (Tampa Police, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office) to correct them, Flynn said.

The information doesn't get added to the state database unless errors are fixed, Baker said. So if the mistake isn't fixed quickly, law enforcement officers who pull someone over might not know about a recent drunken-driving citation or license suspension.

Told about Hillsborough's backlog, Baker said she couldn't comment on whether it was unusually large.

Pinellas County clerk's office officials say their backlog doesn't get higher than a few hundred at a time.

The Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court processes about 19,000 traffic citations each month, said Carol Heath, the director of the Court Services Division.

Those cases routinely require two or three days to work through the system.

Backlogs are traditionally low, Heath said. For example, when her deputy clerks returned Tuesday, they had 200 cases to process from the three-day holiday weekend.

Those tickets are picked up from various law enforcement agencies. Each agency submits a cover sheet with the stack of tickets. Those cover sheets list the number of each ticket, so the tickets are checked against the sheet to make sure they have been processed.

Heath said rules prevent deputy clerks from storing tickets in or under their desks.

"They can leave them on top of their desks," Heath said. "But they do not get put away."

Frank said members of her staff worked over the weekend to sort through the more than 41,000 citations. They are first trying to fix the most serious cases - DUIs, license suspensions.

About 8,000 of the citations had been rejected by the state because of a minor electronic coding error, Flynn said. The clerk's office fixed those Tuesday.

He said all but 11,000 of the errors can be corrected quickly, but the other cases will require further research by the clerk's office and law enforcement.

Frank met with Chief Judge Manuel Menendez and Hillsborough sheriff's and Tampa police administrators late last week. Flynn said it's still unclear how many of the citations need to be corrected by law enforcement, and how many can be fixed by the clerk's office.

"I'm just waiting to see what she's found," said Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue.

Meanwhile, Frank wants to explore more error-proof methods for issuing citations.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers, for example, use an electronic system in their patrol cars. It lets them swipe a driver's license and send the citation information directly into the county clerk's database, said Ernesto Duarte, state spokesman for the FHP.

"A lot of the problem with citations is, some of them are illegible," Duarte said. "So this allows a typed copy of the citation to be sent right to the clerks of court. Remember, some of these officers are writing tickets in the rain in the middle of the night."

The machines cost about $2,500 apiece, Frank said.

"That would save us money because we wouldn't have to put all this information in the system ourselves," she said. "We just want to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Times staff writer Michael Sandler contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 19, 2005, 00:32:23]