If you thought about fighting that parking ticket in court, you may want to save your time.

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation’s Parking Authority has just added AutoCITE, a hand-held electronic ticket device with photo-imaging capabilities, to its ever-increasing arsenal of enforcement weapons.

“The new hand-held devices will enable us to print out electronic tickets and photo images,” said Adrienne Barnes, spokeswoman for the DOT. “If you park next to a fire hydrant, we can capture that image in real-time and present it as evidence in court, or to the vehicle owner at their request.”

Enforcement officers are learning now how to use the devices. The city paid $443,000 for 75 AutoCITEs and the accompanying computer technology, training and maintenance.

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“The technology is already in use in Washington, D.C., and Wilmington[Del.] and officials in both cities report they are having great success with it,” DOT Safety Division Chief Ken Strong said. “Our new devices will also be linked with a national database of stolen license plates so that when agents on the street enter in a plate, they can quickly identify if the vehicle is stolen and get law enforcement on the scene to recover it.”

Wisconsin-based Duncan Solutions, which specializes in traffic-enforcement technology, developed AutoCite. The DOT began using License Plate Recognition technology in March. The license-plate technology and cameras were installed in two vans and to date have helped recover at least 67 stolen vehicles, according to Strong.

That technology “will help us to recover over 400 vehicles a year,” Strong said, “and with the hand-held devices in the hands of our agents on foot patrol who see over 15,000 vehicles a year, we expect this number to increase significantly.”

Last year, agents issued 381,868 tickets, resulting in the collection of more than $13.7 million in fines. And Strong sees the devices as having a greater impact.

“The devices will greatly improve the quality of citations issued,” Strong said. “ ... This will result in fewer mistakes, better court evidence, document management and increase the recovery of stolen autos.”

rchappelle@baltimoreexaminer.com