Reprint from the Progress Times - February 29, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

Mission PD gets new badge, new weapon

 

Police Chief Leo Longoria assembled all available officers in front of the Mission Police Department Headquarters to present them with the department’s newly designed badge Monday, February 25.

The new badges feature the La Lomita Mission, which is also the city’s symbol. As Longoria addressed the rows of officers, he encouraged them to look toward the future.

"We thought it was appropriate as we reached our 100th year because we are going from a very homestead community to a very commercialized and rapidly growing homestead community," said Longoria. "We don’t want to lose sense of our community past. There is a lot of significance to the old badge."

The police department also took the time and the opportunity to unveil a new technology soon to be implemented department wide.

Electronic Citation or Ticket Writers, and handheld electronic device designed to cut the time it takes to issue tickets and citations, will soon be in every Mission Police Department vehicle.

Lieutenant Martin Garza of the Mission Police Department says the new devices will go a long way in allowing the department to keep pace with the demands of the community.

"We have a new bridge coming up and roads expanding and there will be more traffic and the cost per service has increased," said Garza. "We’re always looking for new technology allowing us to work faster, easier and provide better service to the community."

The Electronic Citation system is a network of mobile devices that will allow officers to print out citation receipts, read driver’s license, credit cards, student IDs, decode VIN numbers and even take pictures all on site. The device also sends the information to a central system that records the data.

"Ticket writers is something we’ve been looking at for the last few months," said Garza. "It will basically take all the information we need and download it to the Mission Municipal Court directly. It’s time efficient and time, to us, is of the essence."