When Officer Christopher Smith looks up a statute for a "less written" traffic violation, he reaches for the touchscreen of his laptop computer, makes a few taps and receives the applicable statute.

     Smith and his fellow officers in the Jupiter Police Department, in Jupiter, Florida, are among the first in the nation to use intuitive new software to zero in on traffic statutes. Last autumn, the Jupiter PD tested the criminal statute identification software from Ten-8 Software Solutions, a company based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

     Officers have long wrestled with the challenge of quickly determining exactly which charge applies to a specific crime, says John Landry, a retired law enforcement lieutenant, uniformed police officer and detective, and founder of Ten-8 Software Solutions.

     "It's in the news all the time: people are charged with the wrong crime and charges are dropped," Landry says. "I've known for years that there has to be a better solution for police officers than wading through thick law books."

     Landry, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in education from Capella University, came up with the idea of the statute identification software during a critical thinking exercise he learned through Capella. "I thought, how can we take the guesswork and confusion out of this critical process?" Landry recalls. "Almost all police officers now have laptops in their cars or in the stations; why not use them to quickly pinpoint the exact charge for any situation?"

     Landry and a partner, who is an active-duty narcotics agent, formed Ten-8 Software Solutions to develop and launch the Criminal Statute Identification Program (CSIP) and the Traffic Statute Identification Program (TSIP).

     Along with other departments in the area, the Jupiter PD served as a testing site for the software. The department prides itself on spearheading excellence and looks for ways to innovate, says Lt. Frank Hess of the Jupiter PD. Items from phone books to maps are already available on the laptops of the department's 108 officers; adding the TSIP and CSIP software was a logical progression.

     Additional test agencies include other Florida police departments, such as Port Richey, Titusville, West Palm Beach and Davenport.