Harry Reid & Co. Want to Kill Checkpoint-Dodging Apps

Apple, Google urged to stop selling apps that help drivers dodge police
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 23, 2011 6:08 AM CDT
Updated Mar 23, 2011 8:06 AM CDT
Senators Want to Yank Checkpoint-Dodging Apps
A City of Miami Beach police officer conducts a field sobriety test at a DUI traffic checkpoint.   (Getty Images)

Want to know if there's a checkpoint ahead targeting speeders or drunk drivers? There's an app for that—many, in fact—but Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, and Tom Udall say there shouldn't be. The four senators have written to Apple, Google, and BlackBerry, urging the companies to stop selling applications that they say help dangerous drivers evade police, ABC reports.

"We appreciate the technology that has allowed millions of Americans to have information at their fingertips, but giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern," the senators wrote. The maker of one popular checkpoint app, however, called the letter a "knee-jerk reaction." All his company's app is doing, he says, is deterring drunk drivers by "putting up PSAs and letting people know there are checkpoints," just like police departments do. (More Apple stories.)

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