NYPD To Google: Stop Revealing the Location of Police Checkpoints (nypost.com)

schwit1 shares a report from the New York Post: The NYPD is calling on Google to yank a feature from its Waze traffic app that tips off drivers to police checkpoints -- warning it could be considered "criminal conduct," according to a report on Wednesday. The department sent a cease-and-desist letter over the weekend demanding Google disable the crowd-sourced app's function that allows motorists to pinpoint police whereabouts, StreetsBlog reported. "Individuals who post the locations of DWI checkpoints may be engaging in criminal conduct since such actions could be intentional attempts to prevent and/or impair the administration of the DWI laws and other relevant criminal and traffic laws," wrote Acting Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Ann Prunty in the letter, according to the website. My $0.02 is that the NYPD loses on first amendment grounds.

Comments

Re:NYPD is willfully ignoring the law

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't found a Supreme court opinion on the subject, but a Federal district court judge granted a preliminary injunction against the City/Police in Ellisville Missouri regarding this. See "Elli vs Ellisville" from 2014. (I am not the same AC you asked for a citation, just thought I'd give googling for one a shot)

Re:NYPD is willfully ignoring the law

[PolygamousRanchKid]

About 5-10 years ago, there was a Supreme Court opinion that said people flashing their headlights to indicate a police presence was a 1st amendment right.

This popped up way back in the 70's in the US, when social media was Citizen Band (CD) radios.

Truckers would alert each other to where "Smoky" (a cop) or other "Bears" (yet more cops) were hiding.

Normal folks would just tune in and listen to the "traffic reports", and were most grateful to the truckers.

Go look up Beau of the Fifth Column

[rsilvergun]

on YouTube.

Long story short it's a symptom of Tough on Crime Laws and police militarization that's created an "Us vs Them" mentality. The Drug War hurts a lot too since a large percentage of folks smoke pot or know someone who does and that means you're always scared shitless when a cops around since they can arrest you and take your stuff.

The solution's easy: Stop Voting for Tough on Crime politicians, end the Drug war and stop civil asset forfeiture (which was created for the Drug War anyway). There's a few other odds and ends we can do (California has an anti-speed trap law, and properly funding your police so they're not dependent on civil asset forfeiture is a good start) too.