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from the where-there's-a-will-there's-a...waze dept.
NYPD asks Google to scrap Waze's DUI checkpoints
The NYPD has sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, asking it to axe a Waze feature that allows users to mark cops' locations on the navigation app. Based on the letter first seen by Streetsblog NYC and CBS New York, authorities believe the feature is making it harder to enforce the law and keep the roads safe. The NYPD sent the cease-and-desist just a couple of weeks after Waze debuted speed camera notifications, but the cops' letter mostly focused on the fact that the ability allows users to give each other a heads-up about sobriety checkpoints.
[...] [Based] on the statement it provided to NYT, [Google] doesn't have any intention to give in to the NYPD's demand. It told the publication that safety is a top priority for the company and that "informing drivers about upcoming speed traps allows them to be more careful and make safer decisions when they're on the road."
Also at Gizmodo.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 08 2019, @04:09PM (2 children)
Yes, it is obstructive of justice for Waze to publicize the location.
Yes, it would seem to be a free speech right in at least some jurisdictions. [startribune.com] In at least one district, anyway. [wsj.com]
I'd expect were both sides to push it, one might expect the Supreme Court to finally weigh in about it.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 08 2019, @04:13PM (1 child)
On second thought, reading the actual opinion from wsj above.... Maybe it's not obstruction after all. The point of a speed trap is to keep people from speeding. The point of a DUI checkpoint is to keep drivers off the road. If warning drivers about them achieves those purposes then it isn't obstructive. If warning drivers about them simply means that drivers take other routes and thus evade justice, then it is. Hmm..... Kif, we have a conundrum! Search Waze for Paper, and someone bring me a rock!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Friday February 08 2019, @04:31PM
We can get the lizard too, but sadly Spock is dead. Guess we'll have to go back to the tried and true rock/paper/scissors.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"