Police Organization Wants Cop-Spotting Dropped From Waze App

An anonymous reader writes "The Register reports on a request from the US National Sheriffs' Association, which "wants Google to block its crowd-sourced traffic app Waze from being able to report the position of police officers, saying the information is putting officer's lives at risk." From the article: "'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,' AP reports Sheriff Mike Brown, the chairman of the NSA's technology committee, told the association's winter conference in Washington....Brown called the app a 'police stalker,' and said being able to identify where officers were located could put them at personal risk. Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said his members had concerns as well. 'I can think of 100 ways that it could present an officer-safety issue,' Pasco said. 'There's no control over who uses it. So, if you're a criminal and you want to rob a bank, hypothetically, you use your Waze.'"

Comments

Lying Headlines

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing in here says anything about the NSA. Could we at least get a decent website.

John

Re:Lying Headlines

[93 Escort Wagon]

This reminds me of a scene from an old Andy Griffith Show episode that, for no good reason, has been relegated to long-term storage in my brain.

Andy and Barney are checking into a hotel somewhere for a cop convention. The receptionist says "Thank you Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Fife... oh, excuse me, DOCTOR Fife!"

Andy incredulously looks at the sign-in book and notes that Barney has appended an "M.D." to his name - after which Barney sheepishly explains it stands for "Mayberry Deputy".

(okay, in all likelihood I'm the only person here who thinks that's funny...)

Would this revenue be considered "pork"?

[mmell]

Just askin'.