Some people in the police and law enforcement community are looking at Google to shut down the Waze App citing officer safety concerns and comparing some of the apps functionality to ‘stalking police’ software.
The question is,
“Is Waze dangerous to police safety?”
Without a doubt the answer is a resounding YES! It’s just as dangerous as having a sign on a building that reads, “Police Station.” Or as bad as having a car on the street that has stickers on it saying, “Police Department.”
Once again, we have to look at the reality of the situation. It doesn’t matter what the tool is which is being used for the task at hand, it is how that tool is being used. Fire is great for keeping you warm, but it’s not a good idea to set your house on fire on a cold night.
What is Waze?
Waze is an app that allows crowd sourced information to be geo-located on a map to warn of traffic slowdowns, collisions, construction and police activity. The police activity is the concern here. Most people are using the police activity portion of the app to tell other motorists about speed enforcement locations or to report locations of police officers doing investigations, traffic enforcement and general duties (which the majority of the public has no idea what’s going on) they just post an officers location.
I’ve used the app and find it very helpful. I also have done many interviews about the app and the police location reporting portion of it.
As a traffic officer, I thought it was great technology. Why not let the public warn others about locations of police enforcement? The goal is to make roads safer and if by causing people to slow down that is accomplished, than great!
Do Police Have A Bona-fide Safety Concern?
Yes they do. Anyone who learns the position of a police officer through the app could use that information to facilitate an attack on the officer.
How Does That Compare To Other Means?
It’s the exact same. Many police agencies are encouraging their members to be active on social media which means officer are already checking into locations, tagging themselves at events, using geolocation services with geo enabled devices and reporting to buildings, driving cars and wearing uniforms that all put them at risk.
The biggest challenge here is the message that police are contradicting themselves with. On one hand they are looking for greater access to the information of the public through social applications but then asking for platforms to be closed down which pull back the curtains on the looking-glass into police activities.
Waze represents no more of a danger than Swarm, Facebook Check-ins or a well-intentioned community activity tweet. I’m not looking anytime soon to see police demanding those platforms be scuttled.
How Does This Compare To Posting Drinking/Driving SpotCheck Locations?
I’m very much against posting the locations of spot check locations or officers involved in tactical operations. The goal in those situations are to ‘catch the bad guys’ or disrupt an event. Posting traffic enforcement has the offset benefit of slowing people down and since traffic enforcement is supposed to be based on prevention and safety, it does the trick.
It’s not the tools…its the person handling the tool.
The leadership that has raised the issue with Google and their own memberships are very well-intentioned, but perhaps they didn’t get the proper counsel they should have sought in raising their concerns.
Here’s a twist…just think how effective a police agency could be using the app to notify the public of their activity such as traffic crash investigations, road closures, special events, protests. Just think about the community reaction when they are seeing information critical to their daily activities and planning posted by their police department. That would be a public relations win for sure.
For the final word, Captain Chris Hsuing summed up the debate very well in this interview:
UPDATE:
The National Sheriffs Association has expanded their discord for the app.
From Officer.com:
It broadened its campaign with a new statement criticizing Google’s software as hampering the use of speed traps. The trade association said radar guns and other speed enforcement techniques have reduced highways deaths.“This app will hamper those activities by locating law enforcement officers and puts the public at risk,” the group said.
There was no comment on whether the Sheriffs Association believed prevention of speeding or nabbing speeders held a higher position in their priorities.
Related:
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/01/26/googles-waze-stalking-app-claim-us-police/
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-chief-concerned-waze-20150126-story.html
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20150126/cops-see-good-bad-with-waze-tracking
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/28/382013185/officers-ask-map-app-to-remove-police-tracking?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150128
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-waze-20150128-story.html
http://www.officer.com/news/11819933/sheriffs-expand-concerns-about-waze-app
Thanks Tim, a very interesting post on such matters as community enforcement such as a R.I.D.E. program and so forth. As for the app being used as an insturment for illegal porposes against the police, I think there are enough alternative ways to accomplish this by other means and it may be over re-actionary by a very few. I remember back in the 60’s when CFRB would have Toronto Police announce some radar locations within the city, only to have the announcer say, You’ll have to find the rest on your own!
My pleasure Brian.
I understand the hypersensitive nature of some in light of the recent targeting of officers but like you said, there are enough alternative ways.
Stay safe and thanks for the comment.
The police part should be removed
Thanks for the comment Dominic.
I don’t think it would be possible. People would always find a work around.