HOUSTON -- A new computer program is causing some Houston Police officers to threaten a ticket-writing slowdown, KPRC Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.

Houston Municipal Court leaders said their Integrated Case Management System (ICMS) computer is beginning to schedule officers for court based on the number of tickets they write. The old system committed officers to court duty for certain days of the week, regardless of the number of tickets they wrote.

Assistant Municipal Court Director Bonita Tolbert said, "They're actually going to see a reduction in the number of court settings that they're going to be scheduled for."

HPD officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they've always counted on court duty to boost their paychecks. Many receive overtime pay while they simply wait in the courthouse for their cases to be called before a judge.

Local 2 Investigates obtained listings of subpoenas for 13 HPD officers, showing many officers who have been scheduled for five days each month of court duty are now being cutback to only one day each month of court duty, beginning with March and April of 2008.

Tolbert said, "An officer that wrote 20 tickets, he might be scheduled in one month for all four Mondays. With this system, all 20 of those citations are going to hit that first Monday."

Houston Police Officers Union leaders told KPRC they doubted the new system would work because of the massive caseload. Municipal Court records show more than 900 traffic cases are set for trial each day in Houston.

One officer told KPRC Local 2, "I'm going to stop writing tickets."

Another officer said the incentive is gone because he will now be scheduled for less court, even if he writes more tickets than fellow officers.

But Tolbert said, "We can get the citizens to trial a lot faster and officers don't spend a lot of unnecessary time in the courtroom" with the new system.

The new computer system actually estimates how many cases are likely to end up going to trial, based on each officer's number of tickets written. Tolbert admitted the new system will have to be closely watched once it kicks in during April. If the change needs to be adjusted, she said court staff would be ready to do that.