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Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
Police across the world aren’t necessarily the biggest fans of Waze, and it’s all because of a very simple reason. The Google-owned application allows users out there to report the location of speed traps, therefore letting other motorists on the road know precisely where the police can be found.
Every once in a while, however, traffic authorities publicly recommend against using Waze for an obvious reason: catching offenders is much more difficult if drivers out there, including the offenders themselves, know precisely where the speed traps are located.
The behavior of the speedsters, the police say, is almost the same in every single case. With help from Waze, drivers can break the speed limit and slow down only when they approach the location of a reported speed trap. Given the gigantic user base that powers Waze, it’s impossible for police cars to escape unnoticed, so sooner or later, all speed traps end up being reported in the app.
The traffic police in Kuala Lumpur became the latest authorities to share a similar request. City Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner Sarifudin Mohd Salleh told local drivers that by reporting the location of police on the map, they don’t work with them but are actually against law enforcement.
The local police say that Waze makes it hard to catch drunk drivers and those who run a red light or break other traffic rules. Sarifudin admits there’s no way to block users from running Waze, but at the end of the day, drivers should at least stop reporting the location of police traps within the app to avoid an impact on their campaigns.
The option to report speed traps in Waze is, at least theoretically, supposed to make the road more predictable. Obviously, this is always a good thing, as drivers can find out in advance where the traffic police are located and therefore avoid slamming the brakes when spotting the radar. This eventually improves traffic safety, though, on the other hand, it’s not a secret that it also helps speedsters avoid getting a ticket.
At this point, the demand issued by traffic police can’t be enforced in any way, unless state authorities come up with dedicated regulations on this front. Several governments across the world have adopted new laws to restrict the use of Waze, specifically to prevent drivers from flagging the location of speed traps on the map. France, for instance, continues to allow drivers to use Waze for navigation, but on the other hand, sending traffic reports to warn other motorists of the police location is no longer allowed.
As a result, the police report option has been removed from apps like Waze and Coyote, so drivers would just have to rely on traditional methods, such as flashing the lights, to warn other drivers of speed traps.
