Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
The police reporting option in Waze keeps causing controversy, even in the law enforcement world, where police officers have different views about the feature.
While some believe a police report on Waze supports their purpose of making drivers slow down, at least for the duration of the enforcement, others believe that marking their location helps criminals and impaired drivers.
Some officers even requested users to pin them on the map, but others explained that doing this might eventually help a criminal trying to avoid police checkpoints.
The Waterloo regional police from Canada claim the police reporting option could indeed help, as its purpose is to make drivers slow down. Police cars on the road have the same purpose, as their presence in traffic isn't necessarily supposed to lead to speed tickets but to enhance road safety.
As a result, Staff Sergeant Scott Griffiths says Waze helps increase police visibility and proactive enforcement while providing drivers with improved awareness of their speed.
However, Griffiths emphasized that Waze should only be used with voice commands, as operating a phone while driving could get you a ticket.
Waze comes with voice command integration, so if you can't send a report with touch (if the vehicle is in motion), you can go hands-free and still be able to control the app.
Meanwhile, Waze keeps offering the police reporting option as long as it's allowed to do so. The feature is available worldwide with only a few exceptions in countries that passed regulations specifically to block navigation apps, including Waze, from revealing the location of police checkpoints on the map. One such country is France, where a law that passed a few years ago required Waze to remove the option to pin police on the map for local users.
Waze isn't the only application sporting a police reporting option, as the number of apps with similar capabilities keeps growing. Apple has followed in Google's footsteps with a similar update for Apple Maps, so every iPhone now has a navigation app allowing users to pin speed traps on the map.
The Waze-inspired reporting tool in Apple Maps is only available in regions where the parent company released the detailed city experience – the biggest update in history for Apple Maps, which also includes first-party maps, Look Around, and improved navigation. However, Apple Maps includes only a limited number of traffic reports, such as speed traps, accidents, and other generic hazards. Apple copied Google's approach in Google Maps, but even so, the incident reporting support in Apple Maps seeks lackluster adoption, mainly due to the limited availability of the detailed city experience.
Waze is available everywhere, and despite being a Google-owned app, it can also be downloaded on iPhones and CarPlay.
Some officers even requested users to pin them on the map, but others explained that doing this might eventually help a criminal trying to avoid police checkpoints.
The Waterloo regional police from Canada claim the police reporting option could indeed help, as its purpose is to make drivers slow down. Police cars on the road have the same purpose, as their presence in traffic isn't necessarily supposed to lead to speed tickets but to enhance road safety.
As a result, Staff Sergeant Scott Griffiths says Waze helps increase police visibility and proactive enforcement while providing drivers with improved awareness of their speed.
However, Griffiths emphasized that Waze should only be used with voice commands, as operating a phone while driving could get you a ticket.
Waze comes with voice command integration, so if you can't send a report with touch (if the vehicle is in motion), you can go hands-free and still be able to control the app.
Meanwhile, Waze keeps offering the police reporting option as long as it's allowed to do so. The feature is available worldwide with only a few exceptions in countries that passed regulations specifically to block navigation apps, including Waze, from revealing the location of police checkpoints on the map. One such country is France, where a law that passed a few years ago required Waze to remove the option to pin police on the map for local users.
Waze isn't the only application sporting a police reporting option, as the number of apps with similar capabilities keeps growing. Apple has followed in Google's footsteps with a similar update for Apple Maps, so every iPhone now has a navigation app allowing users to pin speed traps on the map.
The Waze-inspired reporting tool in Apple Maps is only available in regions where the parent company released the detailed city experience – the biggest update in history for Apple Maps, which also includes first-party maps, Look Around, and improved navigation. However, Apple Maps includes only a limited number of traffic reports, such as speed traps, accidents, and other generic hazards. Apple copied Google's approach in Google Maps, but even so, the incident reporting support in Apple Maps seeks lackluster adoption, mainly due to the limited availability of the detailed city experience.
Waze is available everywhere, and despite being a Google-owned app, it can also be downloaded on iPhones and CarPlay.
Google News