Google’s navigation app Waze is known for providing real-time, user-submitted reports that advise drivers about potential thorns in their roadsides.Google should tell the NYPD to fuck off. DUI checkpoints are required to be publicized, which the cops try to evade by publishing the notice in the smallest possible newspaper. Since the time and location of the checkpoint is, by law, public information, there is no legitimate reason to carp about public information being publicized.
But one feature has Waze in conflict with law enforcement officials across the country: how the app marks the location of police officers on the roads ahead or stationed at drunken-driving checkpoints.
Over the weekend, the New York Police Department, the largest force in the nation, joined the fray, sending a letter to Google demanding that the tech giant pull that feature from Waze.
Beyond that, speed traps are often more about raising revenue than road safety. The towns that say that it's all about road safety, funnily enough, stop running their speed traps once the state government limits how much revenue towns can get from the fines. In some cases, they go out of business.
Using the cops to raise revenue is inherently evil. It promotes disrespect for the law. It would be better if the fines are donated to UNICEF.
2 comments:
If the take went to the ACLU, every last wingnut would drive like an angel's grammy.
Good post.
In fact, there is substantial evidence that the policy of raising revenue by finding violations is explicit in many small communities. The practice is as old as the scriptures, and it has contributed substantially to racial tensions in the St. Louis area.
Thanks for making the point.
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