Police chief slams iPhone-driven speeders
Oh, what lack of 'appiness have the iPhone app-ers caused now?
Well, the police chief of Washington, D.C., Cathy Lanier, is rather upset that wicked, venal humans have been downloading an iPhone app that enjoys the peculiar talent of telling you where speed cameras are.
She told the Washington Examiner that this was a "cowardly tactic."
"It's designed to circumvent law enforcement--law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives," she said.
Could anyone possibly argue? Well, perhaps.
Morality is a slope with many slips these days. Technology is moving at a pace far beyond most people's speed limits, so that we're all a little confused as to what is right and what slightly less right.
Oddly, D.C. has embraced technology rather more lovingly than many parts of the U.S.
The Examiner report cites a database called POI Factory, whose estimate is that 10 percent of all red-light and speed cameras in the U.S. are in the D.C. area. That's 290 of them, in case you were thinking of driving there.
And they seem to be something of a revenue-earner as well as a lifesaver. In 2009, the expectation is that Montgomery County (Maryland) will earn $29 million from its cameras.
Some might see a certain irony in the idea that, while these cameras are used to enforce the law, the police chief believes it would not be able to enforce the law to ban the iPhone apps.
"With the Internet and all the new technology, it's almost impossible to stop the flow of information," she said.
And so we enter a new era of technological hide-and-seek between heroes and villains. The snoopers are snooped upon. The police is policed.
Well, it is the land of the free, right?
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
OMG, that means she wants to stop the flow. Get a grip. Using the cameras is in itself a "cowardly tactic." What's wrong with ordinary people protecting themselves from the Police, anyway?
All traffic enforcement cameras should be torn down and be illegal to boot!
Part of the job, ma'am.
I totally agree, other countries (including the EU) handle this much more intelligently. If you take points off the license, the argument of entrapment and revenue hunting disappears, and the potential loss of driving privileges carries far more weight for many people than the cost of a speeding ticket.
Many states take off points..
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/03/cities-removing/
Yes, in addition to catching speeders and red light runners the cameras also catch expired tags, change of lanes without turn signal, exhaust noise or music exceeding the allowable decibel level, drivers not giving way to pedestrians in the crosswalk and host of other violations. It isn't about safety thought that is the reason they use to dupe the public, it is a cash cow for local governments.
I only found this application for the iPhone for Europe.
If the US version was there, it would of been right next to it in the stack.
I guess a forced search is next.
Some police have gone to such lengths as placing a parked patrol car along the highway with a disguised blow-up doll or mannequin. It proves that some jurisdictions know of cheaper methods, but the outcome is still all the same.
Going 70mph when your car can go 160 is a drag...
This is illegal anywhere in Europe. You pass, and do so quickly, or stay in right lane.
In all the years spent there, I never saw an accident on motorcycle or car.
The respect level, even on high speed 1 lane curvy, close tree lined opposing traffic in the country side is unnerving, but they all do so professionally.
And My Hat is off to Them. And Darnit, I really miss it.
Either way kind of stupid to complain that people are avoiding doing bad things when you're looking...
I doubt anyone would drive by a school at that speed. People still speed which I think was his point. At least I think it was...
If I ever meet who times the yellow for .02 seconds.
I'm going to run him over just the way he likes it, quick.
No semi at 40 tons can even come close to stopping let alone cruise through.
Now the green has already let others get under the semi.
Real smart azz brains.
If the cameras were well marked - as with flashing red and blue lights - anyone who got caught would deserve the ticket.
monkeyfun-14 makes a valid point. Speed limits are mostly political and less about safety. If they were set on the basis of well defined engineering principals, people would be more inclined to respect them.
Further, there's too much emphasis on speeding. It's enforced mainly because evidence is easy to get and it's numerical (45 in a 30 zone) making convictions easy. Aggressive behavior like tailgating and running lights are more important.
Finally, I have zero tolerance for driving while impaired/distracted regardless of the cause. I don't care if it's alcohol, drugs or texting on an i-Phone - the penalty should be loss of license without the possibility of reinstatement at a minimum.
I say "sledgehammers are cheap" when robot camera ticket-revenue generators are plentiful. Also, shotguns are easier to destroy them with.
simply doing nails, and always on the phone for 50 miles.
The gal on the motorcycle sitting at a red light gets mowed down in Chicago by Blk gal
that killed her at 60 mph hitting her from behind.
When the cops looked in the car, nail polish was everywhere.
She got less than a speeding ticket for killing her.
She's lucky I didn't see this happen.
I'm gonna download this app right now!
What I would like is the speed limits on the freeway to be jumped up a bit our cars can handle more then 70 move it up to 85 or 90
I agree with monkeyfun14, speed limits are not set according to any reasonable criteria. Slower will mean fewer accidents and deaths, but the logical conclusion of that argument is for us all to park our cars and walk! Speed limits should be set according to the engineering involved. That is, the cars, the road, etc. I have noticed that folks have continued to drive faster and faster, it would appear without losing control. I attribute this to road conditions and advances in cars. When I was 16 70 mph seemed really fast in my mom's corolla. Now everyone seems to be driving 80 and it doesn't seem to fast at all.
PS 295 is 55mph and is in DC as well as a small part of SD Ave.
traffic regardless of 40 semis to get speed down enough to stop.
It's the only thing that will stop death in it's track.
After all, drivers need to exercise the most caution when driving in an area with the highest accident risk, don't they? So a device that could warn of such an area would be a huge safety benefit, wouldn't it?
And traffic-law enforcers -- being solely and nobly concerned with public safety -- naturally position their cameras in the areas of greatest accident risk, don't they?
Well, don't they?
- by jeffcohn July 16, 2009 3:31 PM PDT
- POIFactory is not the primary source of this data and has incorrect information. Many of POIFactory users have stolen data from a free source of red light camera and speed camera information. http://www.photoenforced.com. 290 cameras is only 5% of the total in U.S. which are greater than 5,000 locations not 2,500 which POIFactory indicates. I wish the report would have done a better job at checking his sources.
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