CROWN POINT | Someday soon, Lake County motorists could get this message on their Blackberry, "Gotcha spdg c ya n ct."

Lake County officials hope they can take routine police and court paperwork, including traffic tickets, digital.

County commissioners are set to vote Wednesday on awarding a contract to Next Generation Solutions Ltd. of Merrillville to provide software permitting officers with handheld devices to create electronic traffic tickets that pop up in the county prosecutor and court databases.

Lake County Police Chief Marco Kuyachich said he hopes to have the system up and running in less than six months. It would slowly replace the thousands of traditional tickets processed annually through 14 county and municipal courts.

Mark Pearman, executive director of Cenifax, the county's data processing agency, said since last year people already have taken advantage of the service of paying tickets through the county government's Web site to avoid a lengthy wait in either the court or clerk's office.

The debate about the virtues of making traffic court more user-friendly for police and the accused has only just launched.

"Its part of an overall strategy to automate and streamline the traffic court system," Mark Orciuch, president of Next Generation, said.

Orciuch said electronic notices of traffic citations could be in the future, too.

"There are probably legal ramifications, but if you provide your e-mail address during the traffic stop and agree you want to be notified by e-mail, then it's certainly possible," he said.

Whiting City Judge Ann Likens was receptive to the idea.

"It sounds like it should be a good idea when all of the glitches are removed, which always takes a little while," she said.

Schererville Town Judge Kenneth Anderson said he has heard of at least one court taking part in electronic tickets. Though he is willing to look at the new system, he said he needs to be convinced it's better.

"Going paperless always scares me, and I worry it may make some people upset because they will think we only enforce traffic laws to make money," Anderson said. "That is not what we intend. But when you make the system faster or more efficient it can dehumanize it.

"My personal feeling is courts should be a place where people feel they are getting justice. When you get into a pay-this-online process, it becomes faceless. Some people want to pay a ticket that way. They don't want to go to court. They would rather punch their credit card number in and be done with it."