Traffic police in Dayton Ohio have been issued six new handheld lidar devices that allow officers to photograph and cite speeders without a traffic stop.
According to My Dayton Daily News, the DragonEye Speed Lidar devices went into use in October, 2017 mostly along Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 35.
The primary purpose of the stop-less citation is safety. “When an officer doesn’t have to pull out, it’s safer for the violator, safer for the officer, so we’re not stopping on I-75 in downtown in the middle of rush hour,” said Detective Jason Ward, of the Dayton Police Department’s crash reconstruction unit.
More than 1,200 citations have been sent in the mail since October.
In addition to the new handheld devices, Dayton police have installed several traditional red-light and speed cameras at 5 intersections with high crash rates. The locations of these cameras have been “heavily advertised” according to Dyton Daily. “We want people to know that photo enforcement is back,” Ward said.
The only draw-back to these laser photo devices is that they are unequipped with a flash and therefore ineffective after dark.