Waze: Fake speed cameras and police checkpoints to deceive motorists?
What if the police used Waze to slow down motorists? After all, it would be enough to declare a false control or a false mobile speed camera for the users of the app to comply with the Highway Code… We do not know if the French police officers use this technique, but in England, we do. fully assume.
The Waze application, acquired by Google in 2013, allows you to follow a route, but also to be warned by other “Wazeers” of a possible accident or a police check on your route. If it is planned to define exceptions to this function particularly appreciated by users, this is still not the case and it is always possible to warn motorists.
When the police “troll”
What’s funny is that anyone can report the presence of police on the road. This is where Surrey County Police in south London came up with the idea of place control points itself on their way. In a Tweet from August 2022, they troll: “We never place a Police marker on Waze randomly, no – never. A simple way to slow down motorists on our roads. Thanks Wave. To a Twittos who replies that they are violating Waze’s terms of use, the police officer in charge of communication replies “What condition are we violating?” When we add a report, we are there at that moment”.
We definitely don’t drop Police markers on Waze at random points on our patrol, nope – never 😉
An easy way to get drivers to slow down on our roads – thanks @waze. pic.twitter.com/rrv9I9LJJ6
— Roads Policing – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) August 29, 2022
Also read: Geolocation & Android: how to be untraceable?
The police don’t break any rules…
Difficult to counter this logic since on the app it is not possible to report an event on a road where you are not physically. Surrey County Police are therefore content to add a check on the road during a patrol, even if they do not stick around. Note that the report is automatically withdrawn after a few hours by the app or when another motorist declares not to have seen anything on the application. This keeps reports up to date. According to the English police, the control remains active between 10 and 20 minutes. She adds “Every little helps”.
Anyone can place a marker to signal the presence of police on the side of the road…
