The logic of illogic: Charlie Beck and Waze
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck wants the crowdsourced traffic app Waze to remove its notifications of police locations because, he believes, it threatens their lives. Knowing these locations, he says, will enable people who wish to do ill to police, such as occurred in New York City when two officers were assassinated as they sat in their car, to know where they are.
As a long time user of Waze (in fact since its beta days) one thing I know for sure is that if you want to find police vehicles, Waze isn’t the best choice. For the most part, whenever I see a Waze notification and finally get to the spot noticed, the police car is gone. I have pressed “Not There” more often than the “thumbs up” button.
What Chief Beck should be complaining about is the rise of traffic on residential streets due to Waze, This probably endangers more people, especially children playing near the street, than does the police notification.
For those of you unfamiliar with Waze, it is a crowdsourced repository of traffic information. That means that your smartphone is providing real time information to Waze to determine traffic volumes on the roads you are travelling. They gather up all this information and offer the best/fastest route to your destination.
When, for example, a slowdown occurs ahead of you and all of the other so-called Wazers in your area, they will offer an alternative route. I have seen on numerous times, especially on the freeway, that as soon as a change of direction is offered, suddenly many turn signals switch on in front and back of you. As a group, we follow Waze directions, which, from personal experience, almost always turn out to be better than trying to get through whatever is slowing up the previous routing.
Many times, the new directions put us on residential streets, many of which have never seen the kind of traffic levels Waze has brought to them. It also brings noise, congestion and pollution that these communities haven’t had before either.
Waze is an extraordinarily effective tool to combat traffic issues. It is not neighborhood friendly. As drivers, we have a choice. Usually, we opt for getting somewhere sooner rather than the worrying about the neighborhoods we are driving through.
Aside from the high likelihood that the Beck is wrong about the existence of a police vehicle where Waze claims it to be, they do not indicate what kind of police vehicle it is. Highway Patrol? LAPD? LASD? Transit police?
So, if you have a gripe against LAPD, there is no way of knowing it is their car that is the subject of the notification. If he is worried about police in general, then he has a slightly less weak case.
My guess is that Beck is worried that when the notifications appear, people slow down. Fewer traffic fines, especially when the highlighted car is hidden from view to catch speeders, make for less revenue.
He should be thankful that Waze may, in fact, be saving lives by making people drive more carefully. Isn’t that what the police are there for?