The Springfield Police Department has made it a little more convenient to pay fines for citations.

Chief clerk Wendy Sherrod said any non-court mandated appearance offense can be paid for online with a credit or debit card at www.springfieldgatix.com. They also can be paid by going to www.cityofspringfield.com, clicking on city administration, then police department, and following a link to the site.

“When you click on it, it asks for your citation number and name, and then you do a search and it pops up what the ticket was for and how much it is,” she said.

The company that runs the service is nCourt of Woodstock. The firm charges a processing fee.

Sherrod said if the person paying the fine is also paying a fine for a failure to appear in court, the citation holder is required to put in their address so Sherrod can mail a receipt.

The service is free to the police department, and is paid for by the processing fees charged to those who use the service.
Sherrod said when a citation is paid online, she receives an e-mail notification, and it posts to the computer program that tracks the payment of citations.

“That’s what I love about it,” she said. “It automatically does that, and that takes a little bit of work from me.”

Sherrod said citations can still be paid at the police department, but the department only accepts cash, money order, cashier’s check and local checks.