The US National Sheriffs' Association wants Google to block its crowd-sourced traffic app Waze from being able to report the position of police officers, saying the information is putting officer's lives at risk.
"The police community needs to coordinate an effort to have the owner, Google, act like the responsible corporate citizen they have always been and remove this feature from the application even before any litigation or statutory action," AP reports Sheriff Mike Brown, the chairman of the NSA's technology committee, told the association's winter conference in Washington.
Waze, founded in 2008 and purchased 18 months ago by Google for $1.1bn, has about 50 million users who anonymously share their locations to help gauge road traffic flows. The app also allows police reports and road closures to be added to maps and shared with other users.
Brown called the app a "police stalker," and said being able to identify where officers were located could put them at personal risk. Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said his members had concerns as well.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/26/nsa_gunning_for_google_wants_copspotting_taken_off_waze_app/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 27 2015, @06:51AM
Too often stupid/careless cops get OTHER people killed so it's hard for me to get upset about merely the _possibility_ of a few more stupid/careless cops getting killed.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday January 27 2015, @08:30AM
How about reading the summary before jumping to conclusions?
The app also allows police reports [and locations] and road closures to be added to maps and shared with other users.
This isn't happening because cops are logging into Waze.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 27 2015, @10:59AM
If people knowing where police road blocks/closures/etc are scares any policemen that much they should stop being cops. They are a disgrace to their badge. Cowardly policemen are a great danger to the public and bad for law enforcement. I'm a coward too, but at least I don't pretend to be a cop and shoot/abuse people because I'm afraid that I might get shot and possibly killed.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tibman on Tuesday January 27 2015, @03:07PM
The AC does have one part right though: How about don't make yourself identifiable as a cop
If being identified as a cop was dangerous then people wouldn't have those cop license plates. Not only that but if people wanted to kill a cop they would just find a place with line-of-sight on a police station, walmart, school crossing, or similar. This app does nothing to endanger cops.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @12:20AM
Donut shops.
-- gewg_