Police Demand Google Maps Remove New ‘Speed Trap’ Feature

[Jotoco]

Maps on my Nokia e51 had speed traps listed on then over 10 years ago. 

 

Police may be a little behind the curve.

[mr moose]

I'll say it in every thread that involves the police, don't let the bad ones ruin your perception of the good ones,  many just work hard at a horrible and often thankless job to actually keep you safe.  They, for the most part, are not interested in targeting you and think the quota's and politics are as much BS as you do.  They would rather not pull you over, they don't want to deal with idiots or self righteous people who think they are cunts for no other reason than another cop somewhere in the world was one.

 

I personal have no family or friends who are cops, but I know how hard the fucking job is having had to call on them a few times in my personal existence.

 

 

 

 

[kaiju_wars]

1 hour ago, Arika S said:

Maybe it's an American thing, but I don't get the cop hate. 

 

How about people just don't speed? 

There's some bad cops out there, and people like to let the bad outweigh the good even though it is a (granted more vocal) minority.  Our media here doesn't help as it isn't about reporting news but getting viewers and clicks (for profit).

 

I work for a sheriff's department.  We're the 9th biggest county in the state.  Unless I just missed the memo, our deputies don't and can't have quotas for tickets.  We don't have some "haha we hate minorities" meeting or anything that some people think we do.  We don't have a "dog shooting committee" that others think.

 

For the most part, most officers work a thankless job.

[dizmo]

Interesting, though they really don't have any right to say what can and can't go in the app. As much as most people will cry otherwise, the UKs system of cameras is actually pretty idea in terms of this kind of thing. I think most places would be far better off with that kind of a system. Funnily, the people that are likely to complain are those that are doing wrong...who'd have figured. One has to wonder if they actually demanded it, or if they simply asked...hard to say, there's too much clickbate these days.

 

As for the anti-police rhetoric, all I can say is I hope one day you need them, and they're not there for you.

Yes, you'll complain about that too, but honestly, if you spread that sentiment about them, you don't deserve their help.

That said, most if not all will still risk their lives to help you, which makes your attitude all the more pathetic.

 

3 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

how about the police stop trying to do surprise fundraisers and actually put their money to work

Pretty sure speeding is breaking the law, so, if you're caught doing it, they are doing their job.

3 hours ago, wANKER said:

Okay, someone help me here. 

Speed traps are meant to deter people from speeding, therefore increasing the safety of the roads. Yes? 

So, If i know where a speed trap is, I'm going to slow down anyway..... 

Personally, I would admit to technically 'speeding' 70% of the time. 

Because if i don't, I have some total cunt right up my arse. 

And having been rear ended on a bike, it ain't fun 

Haha, I had the same thought. It's also why in some places they simply leave an empty car, or a cutout of an officer holding a radar gun, and people slow right down.

Most of the time if you're going with the flow of traffic, then it wouldn't be an issue. Also, if someone were following you that closely, he'd get pulled over and ticketed for unsafe driving, or speeding...not you, since you're in front, and honestly if on a bike, harder to catch.

1 hour ago, MetEishYa said:

The only real risk is to there income from fines.

As for the statement that knowing where the police is puts them at risk is BS, if people really wanted to harm police they can just call and report a fake crime then have them go exactly were they wanted. 

As for checkpoint it will now mean they actually have to patrol and do there jobs.

Maybe not where you are, but in the US, it is a valid concern, especially in the wake of police ambushes and murders that have occurred over the past few years.

Do you know what the problem with your idea is?
If they're coming to investigate a crime, they're prepared. Not sure how you didn't think of that.

I don't think you fully grasp what an officers job actually is if you think enforcing a law (which a speed limit is) isn't part of it...

29 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Maybe it's an American thing, but I don't get the cop hate. 

How about people just don't speed? 

They like to give off a tough, I don't care personae, and there's a large enough group of like minded people that they feel this is the easiest way to gain a similar interest to other people; a point to bond on. Unfortunately it spreads, more people join the thought, and now you have a country where the police feel unsafe and as a result, they increase numbers, act worse, etc. It's a circle of unfortunateness that won't end.

 

Also, you have to realize the danger most US police are in on the daily, as well as the fact that officers can make under $15/hr in some places.

 

[ManyCoresGuy]

3 hours ago, emosun said:

go 70mph = legal

 

go 75mph = ticket but 5 minutes faster

conclusion , leave 5 minutes earlier

You should see how fast everyone drives here in Southern California. There are few stretches of freeway that everyone is driving at an average speed of 85 - 90 mph like its nothing. Also when you look thru there their windows, sure enough you see the waze app on their phones hahaha!

[spartaman64]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

Maybe it's an American thing, but I don't get the cop hate. 

 

How about people just don't speed? 

lots of cops in america are just poorly trained and overreact a lot

[Guest]

4 hours ago, OlympicAssEater said:

I am dead serious don't like the police officer. Every time a police car gets behind, I get nervous like the police officer waiting to pull the siren when I speeding 5mph over the speed limit.

just don't speed like how hard is that lol

[Curufinwe_wins]

Also the speed trap location isn't that accurate to matter. Like it is maybe 'within a mile' but that's about it. At that point you aren't putting anyone at risk, and it doesn't exactly give you the option to intentionally navigate around them. 

 

Numerous states are required to post public notice of speed traps anyways. They still work for their end goal. The real bad offenders don't notice or pay attention, and they are the ones that really need the pullover, not just the people who flip their shit and make the interstate come to a crawl just because a cop is somewhere around.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Police Demand google remove weather prediction feature so people can't know whether if they should bring an umbrella to keep themselves dry.   

[TempestCatto]

Where I live, this may be a very local thing, idk. BUT, where I live police will use these "black ropes" across the travel lane. Most people freak out and slow down, I speed the fuck up. Why? Because, at least in this very specific area I live in, the police only use these for traffic demographics. In fact, it may not even be police. But they track things like, how many cars in a given time, at what time of day, their average speed, what kind of car (18 wheeler vs 4 wheeler), etc.

 

They've used these in the past and after evaluating other safety factors, raise the speed limit by a certain amount. I've gone 45 in a 25 when I see them in hopes they raise the limit, which has contributed to working on some roads I use daily. Idk why I'm sharing this, just felt like it. But again, this could be something only my area does, idk. I don't doubt that other places in the USA do this too. I also don't doubt that other areas may use those "ropes" as a speed trap. But at least around here, they don't.

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, floofer said:

just don't speed like how hard is that lol

sometimes cops have a quota of how many speed tickets they have to write per month so towards the end of the month they write you a ticket even if you are 1 mph over

[Guest]

Just now, spartaman64 said:

sometimes cops have a quota of how many speed tickets they have to write per month so towards the end of the month they write you a ticket even if you are 1 mph over

well don't go 1mph over its not hard. Theres usually an allowance of a few (3 here) km/h for speedometer deviance between cars. 

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, floofer said:

well don't go 1mph over its not hard. Theres usually an allowance of a few (3 here) km/h for speedometer deviance between cars. 

the problem is theres many other factors like your car's speedometer might not be 100% exact and the cop's radar gun might not be 100% accurately calibrated

[TempestCatto]

2 minutes ago, floofer said:

well don't go 1mph over its not hard

I fail to understand this reasoning. You can't possibly constantly look at your speedo, it's simply not safe. It's something you glance at occasionally. It is impossible to not "speed". You may find yourself 5-10 over depending on the road and conditions. On the highway, I sometimes end up going 10 or more over, because it's a large open stretch and usually the flow of traffic is going faster anyways. At that point, it becomes unsafe to go any slower. 

 

It's not because I "cant drive" or am just an idiot, it's because even if you have your accelerator depressed to a certain point, your vehicle will still want to gain speed. That's why you constantly have to adjust your foot a little bit constantly. It's all finesse, really.

[kirashi]

5 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

what? monopoly as fuck. is that allowed?

4 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Didn't a different Police Department demand the same for Waze?
(Waze still has this feature so I'm assuming they failed miserably)

Google bought Waze back in 2013 for $1B, and prior to that many other mapping services offered road status indicators as noted by @Jotoco below.

https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/11/its-official-google-buys-waze-giving-a-social-data-boost-to-its-location-and-mapping-business/

 

2 hours ago, Jotoco said:

Maps on my Nokia e51 had speed traps listed on then over 10 years ago. 

Police may be a little behind the curve.

This is my favorite part about the story - crowd sourced mapping isn't new. Hell, forget about mapping - if the police really wanted to enforce this, they'd have made calling up your coworkers after you drove past a speedtrap on the way to work illegal 20 years ago. But they didn't, so IMO they have lost the right to even complain about crowd sourced geospatial data being made available to the general public, similar to how a company loses the right to defend its' copyright or trademark if it doesn't defend each and every instance of its' misuse from day one.

[NumLock21]

6 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Can't decide if the "personal opinion" is legitimate or a troll trying to be funny.

If you see where OP is from, I think he's serious.

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, OlympicAssEater said:

I am dead serious don't like the police officer. Every time a police car gets behind, I get nervous like the police officer waiting to pull the siren when I speeding 5mph over the speed limit.

How about doing the posted speed limit? 

 

 

I got one for you. Have you ever seen police actually point out a speed trap? Back in the day...... my city's police department had a speed trap on Eureaka road. They would sit in an employe entrance to Detroit Metro Airport looking for speeders. Posted speed limit was 45. People would do 60 coming out of the airport or coming off I275. They got $100,000 in ticket revenue in like 6 months. Airport police started pulling up behind the Romulus police car and putting its lights on letting people know, ITS A TRAP! Finally the Airport got the county to raise the speed limit to 55. Romulus Police still get lucky on I94 near the airport however. Mind you Romulus traffic enforcement cars are Dodge Chargers and only marked on the passenger side of the car. The lights are internal, so you dont know who they are until they got your ass. The Wayne Country Sherrif only marks their cars on the bumber in very small lettering. Only a few shade lighter than what the car is painted. I think the only police deparment not trying to fuck you over the barrel the the state police in their big Michigan Blue cars with the big ass red light. 

 

Oh for anyone else who visits the metro area. Be careful in the City of Taylor on South bound Telegraph near the Gardener White. Cause the Gardener white cop will get your ass. No joke, hes been there for decades, pulling unsuspected people over. He is practicly a ledgened around these parts. 

[williamcll]

Over here the radio would just announce where the speed cameras are operating this hour.

[justpoet]

Around here, if you're not going 85 on the 65 speed limit road, you're being tailgated, 80 applies to 55.  So, I just follow others on the road so I'm going the same rate as other traffic, which is actually the safest thing to do.

[Euchre]

I expect the cops aren't going to get anywhere with this, because a similar concept - the flashing of headlights - has repeatedly been upheld as First Amendment protected free speech in the US courts. This is pretty much the same idea. You can't really tell people they can't publicly speak about having seen a cop sitting in wait trying to catch 'speeders'.

 

As for 'why not just not speed', that's not all the cops in a 'trap' are really looking for. They will look for someone who is breaking any law that is a 'primary cause' for a stop, which in some states includes seatbelt use and cell phone use. It could also include a headlight out, even if it is a DRL in broad daylight. Most true 'traps' are set up to leverage obscure changes in speed limits or geography that favors slight violations from otherwise honest people. A lot of speed traps are set up around writing lots of small speed margin tickets, on the expectation nobody will fight them, and generate lots of easy revenue. So, not everyone is some sinister death on wheels plague that get snared in a speed trap.

 

In the end, speed trap warnings are likely to slow down people who want to be compliant with the law, and otherwise travel safely. Believe it or not, that's the main point of even pulling anyone over - getting drivers to slow down, including those merely passing the cop with someone pulled over.

 

On my last road trip, we were using Google Maps Navigation in a rental car connected by Android Auto, and it alerted to speed traps. I'd not had that before, and what it mostly did was make me aware that those without the app in use would be jamming on the brakes soon as they caught sight of the cop. It actually made things safer for me, and I could tell which other drivers were using it or Waze, and the effect was that most traffic was slowing down. Sounds like the 'warning' actually enhances safety, and if anything is bothering the cops, it is the interruption in revenue generation.

[leadeater]

6 hours ago, The1Dickens said:

That has nothing to do with speed limits. That is someone running a red light. They could have been going the legal limit, and not seen the light. They could have been going the legal limit and the light was quicker than normal from green, yellow, then red. They could have been going the legal limit and assumed that oncoming traffic would go before cross traffic, and the person making the turn would see them coming fast and not go. All of them terrible, but all going the legal posted speed limit.

What was pointed out is basic physics, nothing to do with running lights etc. Momentum is Mass * Velocity, or in simple terms the faster you go the bigger the mess. With the weight/mass of the vehicles involved it does not take much extra speed to go from serious injury to death, much less than most think. The other problem is braking and speed reduction is non linear and the greatest rate of speed change during breaking happens at the very end before coming to a complete stop.

 

 

That 5 MPH extra could be the difference between the collision happening at 10 MPH or 30 MPH.

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

the problem is theres many other factors like your car's speedometer might not be 100% exact and the cop's radar gun might not be 100% accurately calibrated

That is why there is a tolerance in applying the law and also why for literally the last roughly 20 years car manufactures calibrate the speedo so the indicated speed is actually higher than you are traveling, it's also considered a safety feature. For my car it is exactly 5 km/s higher than true speed. Problem is I know it's 5 km/s over and as many have pointed out other people are assholes and do not use safe following distances, because they also know speedos are designed to over report your speed so go even faster.

 

Personally manufactures should stop that as it's stupid and not everyone uses the same offset, closer to true value is best.

 

Radar guns are not that inaccurate and neither is your car speedo, the only time it would be significantly off is if you are not using the recommend tyre spec so the diameter is not what it should be.

[The1Dickens]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

What was pointed out is basic physics, nothing to do with running lights etc. Momentum is Mass * Velocity, or in simple terms the faster you go the bigger the mess. With the weight/mass of the vehicles involved it does not take much extra speed to go from serious injury to death, much less than most thing. The other problem is braking and speed reduction is non linear and the greatest rate of speed change during breaking happens at the very end before coming to a complete stop.

 

 

That 5 MPH extra could be the difference between the collision happening at 10 MPH or 30 MPH.

The video doesn't seem to work for me any more, but the video posted was clearly someone running a red light and hitting another car perpendicular to the direction of travel. Not someone speeding. The assumed reaction time of 1.5 seconds is also assuming an alert driver.

 

Braking distance, final speed, and reaction time all mean nothing if the driver is staring at their phone, or examining their teeth in the mirror, or digging in their backpack behind the passenger seat.

 

All I'm saying is that arguing for speed limits because drivers are not paying attention is not a valid argument. Not that the science isn't there.

 

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, The1Dickens said:

The video doesn't seem to work for me any more, but the video posted was clearly someone running a red light and hitting another car perpendicular to the direction of travel. Not someone speeding. The assumed reaction time of 1.5 seconds is also assuming an alert driver.

Ahk, didn't watch the video. Even so the point still stands regardless of the cause of the accident, faster you go the more likely you'll die or increase seriousness of injury. Speed through an intersection and get taken out by a txt'ing driver, you're still speeding. There is no excuse when it comes to that.

 

2 hours ago, The1Dickens said:

All I'm saying is that arguing for speed limits because drivers are not paying attention is not a valid argument. Not that the science isn't there.

That isn't why they exist and isn't why they are set at what they are. Road design, area, traffic flow, traffic type etc all go in to why the limit is chosen.

[RejZoR]

Wouldn't you achieve a positive result if you show the speed trap locations on map even if cops aren't there? The point is to keep people driving at specified speed. If they do it coz of limit or coz of fear of cops, does it matter? They go by the speed limit in the end whether cops are there or not. If you still don't, it's up to you.

If police departments were smart, they'd cooperate with companies and place fake speed trap locations in places that are known to be usual speeders locations that might endanger others. Map will show possible speed trap and people would slow down there. It's something.