Crimaldi plans to begin his crackdown on Oct. So with about 100 or so deputies and 25 tow trucks, Mr. "We took an ambulance after we found it was not being used, an empty hearse, ice cream and bottled-water trucks and even an armored truck that was full to the brim when we towed it away," he said. Crimaldi has used the computers to seize all kinds of scofflaw vehicles, including up to 30 taxis a day. A company spokeswoman, Barbara Wagner, said the terminals are being used successfully in Newark, Los Angeles and Chicago. The handheld terminal is manufactured by the Ardis Company in Lincolnshire, Ill., a joint venture of I.B.M. After its computers search the lists and find the information requested, the data center sends it back to the deputy's handheld computer - all in a matter of seconds. The complex then sends the request to a data-base center in Arlington, Va., where lists of scofflaws and the amounts they owe are maintained. That information is sent by radio signal and then telephone line to a computer routing complex in Chicago. Using the new computer - officially called a mobile digital terminal - the deputy first punches in a car's registration number on the unit's keyboard. Ten seconds or less is all it will take for a sheriff's deputy, armed with a computer, to find out if a car is a scofflaw and, if it is, how much the owner owes in unpaid fines. "But I have yet to see someone escape in 10 seconds," Mr. The wait for a tow truck often gave the vehicle's owner enough time to drive away unscathed. To have a vehicle towed, a deputy would have to call the Department of Transportation, which has its own program of towing illegally parked cars. Crimaldi, who is 43 years old, said that in years past spotting a delinquent vehicle was a cumbersome task that required traffic agents to maintain long lists, or "hot sheets," of scofflaws. Such fines and judgments total $230 million citywide. Sheriff's deputies seized cash and assets from dozens of proprietors who had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid city fines and judgments, most of them for littering. Crimaldi's appointment was a series of well-publicized raids on merchants and restaurants. Private collection agencies contracted by the city had done most of that work before. Crimaldi and expanded the office's duties to include collecting the more than $500 million in annual judgments and fines owed the city and the $1 billion owed from previous years. In past years the sheriff was known mainly for enforcing court-ordered judgments and fines against individuals. This is what it could mean for New Yorkers.
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