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CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The coronavirus pandemic has police departments considering how they’re jobs are going to be changing when it’s over.
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said policing is going to change without question. He said it is no secret police everywhere are making fewer traffic stops to avoid too much contact with people, and he said what is happening now it going to have an impact going forward. Speed enforcement, for example.
"I know the general public was really negative against red light photo enforcement, but I have always believed that the public would support speed enforcement from cameras, and I think after this pandemic there's going to be a lot changing in law enforcement, and a lot changing in this world that was dependent on what happened during this pandemic," he said.
Chief Weitzel said speed enforcement could be done without a traffic stop, using existing license plate technology installed in police vehicles.
"The technology is there. It is currently not used anywhere in the United States. Currently, the speed enforcement is used on pole cameras now, so they are fixed units. I mean society would have to accept that, the courts would have to except that, but that is something we are going to be looking at moving forward, because I think there is a real push for this less physical contact," he said.