illegal parkers no mercy.

From about the end of this month Bermuda's traffic wardens will be armed with the AutoCite -- a hand-held computerised machine dishing out the tickets.

Information on the machines will be sent directly to computers in Magistrates' Court.

The scheme is part of a massive system electronically linking organisations ranging from the Police, to the courts to prisons.

Traffic wardens are about a month late getting their machines, but according to Police the emphasis has been on getting the whole system working correctly rather than rushing it into use.

Chf. Insp. Roger Kendall said: "The traffic wardens are being trained now and they should be using the machines by the end of the month.

"The overall system is so big we could not bring everything on line at the same time.

"It has been a phased implementation to make sure one thing is working before bringing something else on line and it has taken a bit longer than anticipated to get the system installed and people trained.'' He added: "There was no deadline to meet, it was a question of installing the system correctly.'' The traffic wardens' machines are part of the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) which will link the Police, the courts, the TCD, social services, prisons, the Attorney General's Chambers and probation services.

All the computers will "talk'' to each other and automatically update records.

In the case of the wardens' machines, they will record a motorists' details which will be fed into a central computer at Hamilton Police Station.

That computer will send the details to Magistrates' Court and if a fine is not paid within the seven days allowed it will automatically send out a summons.

"The beauty of this is that it will be on top of the system at all times,'' added Chf. Insp. Kendall.

"It will also save a lot of time otherwise spent on paperwork allowing the traffic wardens to spend more time on the streets.''