Should you be free to tell other drivers where cops are lurking? A lot of sheriffs don’t think so.
50 million people use the app Waze to access and share real-time updates on traffic conditions, accidents, speed traps– any information that helps them choose the best, fastest route to where they need to be. But police officers have gotten wind of the app’s ability to report the location of officers, and they want that capability shut down.
Cops claim that the app puts the lives of officers at risk, and are demanding that Google, Waze’s owner, dismantle the feature. It’s not law enforcement’s first anti-app campaign: pressure from cops has successfully pulled apps off the market in the past, including apps that located DUI checkpoints.
Although there have been a few high-profile officer shootings in recent months, there is no evidence that any shooter used Waze to find their victims. Ismaiiyl Brinsley, who killed NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, had used the app, but does not appear to have tracked the officers with it before killing them.
But sheriffs across the country insist that Waze is somehow dangerous. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck wrote a letter to Google claiming that the app could “endanger police officers and the community.”
At a National Sheriff’s Association meeting, Sheriff Mike Brown of Bedford County, Virginia brought up the possibility of “litigation”: “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.”
Waze counters that its feature can actually improve public safety. “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,” a spokesperson has said. They also noted that the app only gives a general location for the officer: it can’t “track” them or pinpoint an exact location.
“I do not think it is legitimate to ask a person-to-person communication to cease simply because it reports on publicly visible law enforcement,” Nuala O’Connor of the Center for Democracy and Technology told the Associated Press.
And despite fear for officers in the wake of the NYPD shootings, police work remains safer than ever. Very few officers die in the line of duty—so few that policing doesn’t even crack the top 10 most dangerous professions.
