Enforcement agents now use tablets to report underage tobacco sales

The city’s tobacco enforcement agents, responsible for going undercover to make sure stores aren’t selling tobacco products to minors, are now armed with tablets, according to the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC)’s spring newsletter. The effort will cut down on enforcement time, said John Mullane, who heads the tobacco enforcement program.

The agents, who are part of a city-funded program from a local nonprofit called the Health Promotion Council, used to have to file citations on paper, take them back to the office and then fax them to the city for enforcement, Mullane said. But as of January 2013, agents can now send reports to the city immediately with their tablets.

“This has been a dream for quite a while,” Mullane said to PHMC.

PHMC’s tech department built the app that the agents use to report citations. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the city or city government-affiliation organizations build custom apps to improve efficiency. The city’s public safety GIS department built an app to make fire hydrant inspections smoother, and it saves the city $17,000 a year.

The effort to give tablets to in-the-field city inspectors to increase efficiency might remind you of efforts to see the city’s beleaguered Licenses and Inspections Department do more with its budget-strained team or come to mind possible advances in police work seen elsewhere.

Read the whole PHMC story here.