A group of UF students want to make routine traffic stops safer with a smartphone app.
Virtual Traffic Stop is an app created to help protect police officers and drivers during traffic stops. The students said they created it to keep officers and civilians safe.
Jessica Jones, one of the four students who helped create the app, said it allows police to interact with civilians without leaving their car. The officer will be able to find a driver’s information by his or her license plate number once the drive uploads the information.
Jones, a 27-year-old UF sixth-year doctoral candidate in human-centered computing, said the app will not store private or sensitive information. She compared the app to Instagram, where users can take and post pictures.
Police can communicate with drivers in a video conference, and if necessary, they can send an electronic citation through the app.
Jones said the app needs to go through pilot testing before it can be available for download. She said the app will be free for drivers, and anyone with a smartphone will be able to download it.
Nicole Ferber, a 20-year-old UF nursing sophomore, said she predicts positive and negative effects will come from the app.
“Though the point is to help keep both parties safe,” Ferber said, “I can also see people becoming polarized about this.”
She said she’s afraid it might perpetuate the idea that officers and drivers should be scared of each other.
Jones said the app is meant to give police another tool to use in the field.
“I think if we could keep one person safe — one officer dry, out of the rain — that would be a big enough impact for us,” she said.
