To their credit, the police in Windcrest, Texas, are considering alternatives to the way things have “always been done,” which has often been done wrong and too often with disastrous results. They are offering drivers an alternative to the usual traffic stop called the Trusted Driver program.

It’s a concept never done before, and it’s about to happen in Bexar County: Getting a traffic ticket sent to your phone without an officer pulling you over. One police department will be the first in the nation to test it.

“It’s not a 100% solution, but it’s a step forward in the right direction,” said Val Garcia, President & CEO of the Trusted Driver Program.

The name, which harkens to the federal Trusted Traveler program, provides an alternative to the usual protocol of being pulled over if a cop believes you’ve committed a non-dangerous traffic offense by pulling up your profile and issuing a ticket by text message.

It’s a web-based program where drivers can avoid seeing a police officer face-to-face, and instead get a ticket via text message.

“If we minimize those interactions just for minor traffic violations, they have more time to dedicate to serious crime like DWI’s that are on the road, reckless drivers, racing,” said Garcia.

While concern for officer’s time to nail those committing dangerous traffic offenses is fine, the far more interesting selling points is that it reduces personal confrontation with police officers, which may start with an innocuous infraction like a broken tail light and end with a dead body. Even in less tragic instances, it’s often unpleasant, demeaning and increasingly prone to escalation. If there’s no personal interaction, no cop is offended by a person’s failure to comply with sufficient adoration and no driver is offended by the cop’s language, baseless commands or knee in his back.

Unlike getting a ticket in the mail weeks later, the text will alert you fairly quickly as to the accusation, so the facts are more likely to be clear in your head if you want to challenge the ticket.

“The cell phone has to be hands-free and mounted on your car and by transportation code, you’re allowed to respond to a notification – just like an AMBER alert,” said Garcia.

For citizens who wish to contest their ticket, all court proceedings can be handled virtually as well through the program. Trusted Driver is free and citizens can opt out at any time.

One downside is that you have to opt in to the program, which means providing the police with your personal information which is always subject to abuse and misuse. You can opt out, but that’s no an assurance that your personal information disappears, only that you won’t get a text.

But this also offers an opportunity that can be critical in police interactions and has led to a great many tragic encounters.

“If you’re deaf, if you have PTSD, autism, a medical condition like diabetes or a physical disability but you’re still allowed to drive,” said Garcia. “It really gives an officer information faster in the field to handle a traffic stop if it does occur and be able to deescalate.”

That police will be aware that a driver is deaf or autistic could be of critical importance in preventing a mistaken shooting, provided the cop reads it and is adequately trained not to kill deaf people because they didn’t comply with commands.

Is this the perfect solution to myriad problems created by traffic stops for minor offenses? Probably not, as it remains subject to how well it’s executed by police and the many collateral problems that either can’t be anticipated or eliminated. Unfortunately, it’s also being sold as a means for police to gain the trust of the community with positive messages.

Through Trusted Driver, police are also able to send positive messages to drivers who are doing a stellar job obeying traffic laws.

Anybody want to get love texts from the cops, or would you prefer to be left alone? More to the point, this would mean the cops are plugging in your plates and accessing your information without suspicion, which may smell too much of big brother for comfort.

Is this a good idea, even if imperfect? Is this the sort of idea that you would give a try to avoid that physical encounter rather than have a chance to talk the officer out of a ticket by telling him you’re on the way to get that brake light fixed as you speak? Will cops, who are under no duty to honor the system even if you’ve opted in, use it for some drivers and not for others whom they want to stop just to see if they can grab some forfeiture loot or search the trunk for weed?

Questions remain, but is this a worthwhile start to bringing effective change to the current system that hasn’t worked particularly well for anyone?