The region started a month-long trial of 18 secure mobile access and reporting technology devices yesterday.
The devices resemble personal digital assistants (PDAs) and work in a similar way to ticketing machines used by parking wardens.
Southern district road policing manager Inspector Andrew Burns said they would improve efficiency and accuracy in the issuing of traffic tickets.
"There will be no change to the information that is collected or stored - the technology will simply allow us to do what we've always done, more efficiently," he said.
The machines allow police directly make a query about a person or a vehicle, issue an infringement notice, upload data to the national infringement office, and view reference data including the police code book and legislation.
Direct data entry would mean less paperwork for officers and avoid issues such as legibility of handwriting and incomplete information, Insp Burns said.
"The public will notice very little change in the way an infringement notice is issued. The same information will be presented to them, but it will be captured in a computer generated printout."
The specifically designed software operated on a mobile network.
If this network failed, data could still be entered on the machine, but police radios would be used to contact police communications centres for information about people and vehicles, as happened now.
About 50 Southern police had been trained to use the devices with the trial the first opportunity to use them operationally.
The district was chosen because of its geography, and mix of urban and rural environments.
Two different models are being tested with their durability a focus of the trial, the results of which will be reviewed before a decision is made about introducing the technology nationwide.
