Waze is one of the few applications in the world that has faced Google Maps, and one of the reasons for this is that it has a tool that allows you to see and notify that there is a police control. Last week it was discovered that even the police themselves were also using it, although obviously their objective is another.
Report a police check as long as it is already in place it is a totally legal practice and quite common in WhatsApp groups or other apps. What is not allowed is to obtain information about where it is going to be placed in the future, and with this small distinction Waze has been “stealing” users from Maps for years.
It is no secret that the most effective method to enforce traffic regulations is putting radars and police controls, but it is impossible to install them in all the streets of a city. But it seems that the police in Surrey, a county near London (England) have found a new way to get drivers to respect traffic regulations.
If you can’t beat your enemy, join him
What is striking is that they do it with the same function that users use to avoid themand that informs Waze users that there is a police control. Apparently the agents themselves, who logically cannot be everywhere, They have decided to post control notices where they are patrolling.
This is what the police themselves have told it from their official Twitter account, where ironically they have written “Definitely we do not put notices of Police controls in random places while we are patrolling”, to later thank the app for the creation of said function.
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
Complaints from users have not been slow to appear, wondering if this technique was not illegal since they were placing false information in the app.
The police have taken refuge in that theoretically this information is not false since at a certain time of the day they have been in the place where they have posted a notice of police control. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most curious ways in which the police intend to control compliance with the rules on the road.
