Police chief denounces 'cowardly' iPhone users monitoring speed traps [DC angry about lost $]

Washington Examiner ^

[RatherBiased.com]

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras.

That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints.

"I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Examiner. "It's designed to circumvent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives."

The new technology streams to i-Phones and global positioning system devices, sounding off an alarm as drivers approach speed or red-light cameras.

Lanier said the technology is a "cowardly tactic" and "people who overly rely on those and break the law anyway are going to get caught" in one way or another.

The greater D.C. area has 290 red-light and speed cameras -- comprising nearly 10 percent of all traffic cameras in the U.S., according to estimates by a camera-tracking database called the POI Factory.

[KoRn]

If such a thing catches on in VA, they’ll probably ban iPhones in cars, and treat them as if they were radar detectors.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[dcwusmc]

Just now got that software on my Blackberry... screw a bunch of revenue hounds!

[JenB987]

For the tech guys out there, I just an iTouch and am not familiar with all it’s capabilities yet. Would this app work for it, or does it require being connected to the internet at all times?

[commish]

ONe of the nice features of the I-phone app is that it is now using the text “push” technology with version 3.0.

IOn addition to the fixed locations from the trapster database, it now sends “Live” alerts if someone sees a speed trap, check point, accident etc and sends it in.

You will get these alerts based on your GPS location even if the app is not running.

I got one on the way home last night that allowed me to avoid an accident/traffic tie up and plan an alternate route home.

[commish]

It requires the GPS system that is in the iPhone, not sure if the iTouch has that capability.

[Charles Martel]

In addition to the fixed locations from the trapster database, it now sends “Live” alerts if someone sees a speed trap, check point, accident etc and sends it in.

You will get these alerts based on your GPS location even if the app is not running.

Sweet. I didn't know the system updated on a real-time basis. I guess I know what my next cellphone will be.

[Munz]

>You got that right. My spouse and I call policemen “revenue enhancers”. That is their main function now.<

there are still good cops out there that do what they should be doing, trying to protect us from the criminal elements of society.

[Gondring]

I thought those cameras (speed and stop light) were supposed to get folks to drive in a more sane manner, so why, rhetorical question, is the police department mad that the citizens are using their iPhones to do the same?

Because the enforcement works on the principle that you don't know when or where it is, so the driver must remain within the law at all times. If the locations are known, then there are two options:

• this allows people to violate the safe behavior/law, or
• we must increase law enforcement coverage so it is EVERYWHERE.

Any conservative/libertarian who cannot see the implications of this has not thought it through. All these comments do is make a mockery of conservatism--by making it look like it wants to have a police state--or libertarianism--by making it look like it wants to evade the rule of law.

Just because these tools can be used as a revenue device does not make the chief's remarks invalid.

[Gondring]

Should have pinged you to #109