CHESAPEAKE, Va. — When she’s not gardening or making cheese at home (yes, she makes cheese!), Officer A. Watterson patrols the roads of Chesapeake as a member of the Chesapeake Police Department’s traffic bureau.
“My goal is to make sure everyone gets from point A to point B,” said Watterson.
Watterson is giving 13News Now Anchor Philip Townsend a front-row seat to a day on the roadways enforcing traffic laws. Thanks to a relatively new speed radar called the Eagle 3, it didn’t take long for Watterson to catch her first speeder of the day.
“[Radar] can get them coming and going in the front and coming and going in the rear.”
Watterson also showed off some of the department’s unmarked cars -- ones you wouldn’t suspect that have earned a reputation around town for nabbing people breaking the law.
At the request of the department, we won’t give away the makes and models of the vehicles, but they include a pickup truck and sports cars. They’re highly effective, and even more useful now that Virginia legislators passed the hands-free device law.
Watterson said before it went into effect in January, she had only given one ticket for texting... and that was only because the driver admitted it. Since the law went into effect she has issued four, but said other officers have issued countless others.
Outside of the new tools, policing the roadways has changed a lot in the last year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, fewer people on the roadways meant fewer traffic stops for officers like Watterson.
“I missed talking to citizens,” she said.
She gets to make more and more traffic stops now that COVID-19 vaccines have rolled out, and while you may not be happy if she catches you by surprise breaking a traffic law, Watterson hopes drivers see the bigger picture, safety for all.
“At the end of the day, I’ve got a job to do,” said Watterson. “It’s nothing personal.”