Police not thrilled with Google’s new map app

Iphone users who want to avoid the police can now hit up Google Maps before they hit the gas.

Google is rolling out the ability to report speed traps, crashes and slowdowns in real time to its Maps IOS app, making the new feature available to about 1 billion existing users worldwide. It already is available on Android phones, as well as on Google’s other map app, Waze, which has a fraction of the users, but also allows people to report police sobriety checkpoints.

U.S. law enforcement has been critical of using the technology to report checkpoints that identify drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and other types of police presence, something they say heightens safety risks on the road.

“Revealing the location of checkpoints puts those drivers, their passengers, and the general public at risk,” wrote the New York Police Department in a letter to Google in February, demanding that Waze stop alerting users to checkpoint locations.

It’s the latest wrinkle in the sometimes rocky relationship between law enforcement and tech companies in recent years. Most giant tech firms tout a mixture of free speech, privacy and ease of use as pillars of their services and devices, values that don’t always align with helping the police crack a case.

Amazon initially fought law enforcement on subpoenaing recordings from one of its Echo speakers that might have been witness to a murder but eventually turned them over. The FBI cracked the phone of a San Bernardino, California, terrorist who was responsible for a 2015 shooting that killed 14 people with help from professional hackers after Apple wouldn’t cooperate. The United States, Britain and Australia have all called on Facebook to halt its plans to encrypt its messaging apps unless it provides a way for investigators to see communications.

Google said in an emailed response to questions about Google Maps that safety is “a top priority” and that reporting features can be beneficial to public safety. “We believe that informing drivers about upcoming speed traps allows them to be more careful and make safer decisions when they’re on the road,” said Google spokeswoman Genevieve Park.

Sgt. Mary Frances O’donnell, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department, said, “the Department has engaged in productive discussions with Google to make information available to drivers that will make roads safer and encourage responsible driving, while not impeding the enforcement of New York State Vehicle and Traffic laws.”

There previously have been lower-tech options for reporting DUI or DWI checkpoints and speed traps. Drivers, for example, sometimes flash their headlights to oncoming traffic to warn of police in the area. Here in Ohio, a man was arrested in 2014 for holding up a sign on a Parma street corner that said, “Checkpoint ahead! Turn now!” He eventually was cleared of the charges against him.

Google Maps also is adding other, less controversial categories that can be reported by iphone and Android users: objects in the road, lane closures, construction and disabled vehicles. And though the app has an option to report “speed traps,” it does not have one for sobriety checkpoints or a means to comment within the reporting feature. Waze allows users to report “police” and “camera,” and to create comments that explain whether the incident is a checkpoint or another type of law-enforcement activity.

But map apps have transformed communities in more than one way, as they frequently route cars around traffic and onto unexpected roads — sometimes making traffic worse in other areas.

In one example, a quiet Maryland street suddenly became inundated with several hundred cars an hour after Waze routed vehicles there. The situation led an exasperated homeowner to submit false reports of a blockage on the street in an attempt to trick the algorithm. He was unsuccessful.