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posted by martyb on Friday February 08 2019, @03:39AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 08 2019, @11:42PM (2 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 08 2019, @11:42PM (#798592) Journal

    Coupled with the notion that the state has an legitimate interest in preventing drunk driving in the name of highway safety.

    The camel's nose might also say that in the name of national security if your digital life is unintentionally hoovered while looking for ISIS operatives that it isn't a serious thing..... Or, come to that, establishing checkpoints along border highways and stopping vehicles to inquire of citizenship status. Which *is* what they're doing now, both. Not saying that's good or right. But just because that's wrong (and it's wrong that they didn't approve Thin Thread at that time), doesn't mean the state doesn't have an overriding interest in stopping drunk driving.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @02:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @02:37AM (#798665)

    The state's interest in stopping drunk driving shouldn't extend to the point where they can stop everyone's car to make sure they're not drunk driving. This is another 'the ends don't justify the means' scenario, and people really need to understand that.

    The "legitimate interest" argument is almost always used to curtail our liberties, as we see here. It has no validity.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Sunday February 10 2019, @09:26PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 10 2019, @09:26PM (#799225) Journal

    Why don't we just require everyone to wear a 24/7 bodycam that uploads to the cloud. Put cameras on every building. Look at Great Briton as an example of a good start. Look at police states where you can safely walk the street at 3 AM and not expect to get mugged.

    Police work is easy in a police state.

    There is some line where you cannot police people more than they want to be policed. Or protect them more than they want to be protected. Or criminalize substances based only on watching reefer madness.

    TSA is ineffective. Yet we pay for it and suffer through it on every flight.

    I'm all for states requiring people show a drivers license as a condition of being allowed to drive. Everyone pulled over should produce their driver license. But my support ends once you erect "your papers please" checkpoints that indiscriminately target everyone.

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