“Real-time traffic app Waze’s police spotting feature is a deterrent for dangerous driving, not a tool that can ‘track’ police officers, company officials said in response to concerns from the Los Angeles police chief,” Joseph Serna and Richard Winton report for The Los Angeles Times. “In a Dec. 30 letter to Google, which acquired Waze in 2013, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck… noted that in the days before Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed New York Police Department Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on Dec. 20, he used the application to monitor police movements.”
“In a statement, Waze spokeswoman Julie Mossler said… ‘We think very deeply about safety and security and work in partnership with the NYPD and other police and departments of transportation all over the world … to help municipalities better understand what’s happening in their cities in real time. These relationships keep citizens safe, promote faster emergency response and help alleviate traffic congestion. Police partners support Waze and its features, including reports of police presence, because most users tend to drive more carefully when they believe law enforcement is nearby,'” Serna and Winton report. “The police-spotting feature allows users to drop an icon on a map indicating the rough location an officer was spotted, but it cannot “track” them or give an exact location, she said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Police: Google’s Waze is a ‘stalking’ app – January 26, 2015
Hmmm, who to side with: Google or the cops? I choose the NRA.
We have quite a few weak sisters here who get upset if you mention the NRA or the right to bear arms. Always cracks me up how they wouldn’t think of protecting their own family with a firearm, but also trash the police at every turn. Guess they rely on the good nature of the criminals.
(Rubbing chin) hmm, tell me more about these sisters!
Um, are you sure that’s your chin you’re rubbing?
Stories first! Frottage follows.
LAPD Chief Beck has this all wrong. He mentioned how bad it is to know where officers are doing a DUI checkpoint. Where I live in L.A. County, the Sheriff office actually sends text messages telling where DUI checkpoints are. The theory is that sober drivers will heed the warning and avoid the delays.
Waze is trying to help drivers avoid speed traps and places where revenue-generating cops are lying in wait. If the police departments would stop this practice of using traffic tickets as a way of bringing cash into the department and the city and go back th protecting and serving, this Waze feature would not be needed.
The solution: do not allow any municipality or county to keep more than five percent of any traffic fine (to cover administrative costs), return the balance to the citizens. It would defuse the rank practice of using traffic tickets to generate income instead of its intended use: public safety.
Why should police in public have a right to privacy when citizens don’t?
I don’t know exactly what you mean. In my state, all police activities are a matter of public record as mandated by Sunshine Law.
Do you mean privacy in regards to their location while on duty? They don’t…fsck ’em.
Yes. Cops are decrying the Waze traffic app as a “police stalker.”
Even better solution. Don’t break the law and speed.
Perfect example here in Columbus. Speeding car ran red light. No big deal?
He hit a school bus that was pushed sideways onto the sidewalk and killed two pedestrians. Maybe the speed traps and red light cameras should have been used.
“It’s for the children!”
blow it outta your ass, it’s for the coffers.
Ah, so speed limits are optional? So let’s just take down all the speed limit signs and everyone drives whatever speed they want. You’re a fucking idiot.
Hey Einstein, he’s not saying speed limits are optional. He’s saying the speed traps are not for safety, it’s to generate revenue.
You’re obviously not so bright yourself.
I’ve come close to being t-boned by these assholes, and jerks like you condone it because “it’s for the coffers”. The ones who piss and moan about red light cameras are the same ones who can’t drive worth a damn and don’t give a shit about the consequences.
Hey dumbass, don’t run red lights and you won’t have a problem. You are such a belligerent asswipe.
And he was doing so well there, for a little while. Making actual posts with actual thoughts. Taking the meds regularly, I guess. But back to the usual belligerent asswipe… unfortunately.
hey, no shit, can you give the “time for your meds” thing a rest? It’s gotten really lame…I know you consider it the height of wit, but could you retire it for a different trite retort? Like maybe, “your mama [fill in your favorite epithet here]æ….Just for a while, say, till at least April.
Try and think different..thanks.
It’s not meant to be “wit”, asswipe – merely belittling sarcasm.
whatever.
If I was running law enforcement, I’d berzerk Waze by reporting cops in key spots to coerce drivers to slow down.
I remember gas stations berzerking the gas price reporting websites years back in order to make the prices at their competitors look higher than they actually were.
Psychopathic cops crying like the babies they are. They work for the public. The public can track them all they want.
This is what you get when you hire low intelligence, steroid fueled tough guys with a gun and a badge. The only good cop is a …
Time for your meds?
hey, no shit, the “time for your meds” vapid odium is gettin’ really lame…could you retire it for a different trite retort? Just for a while, say, till at least April.
“The only good cop is a …”
A cop who has your sissy ass on the ground with his foot in the back of your neck, which means you have just been busted again for possession of what ever the hell it is you snort, suck or shoot up. Idiot.
You like it when a cop says blow this. You swallow too and ask for more.
Wow, what an awesome retort … for a mentally deficient nine year old.