A police pressure had been accused of deceptive drivers after site visitors officers admitted reporting their areas on a sat nav app even when they’re shifting.
Surrey Police claimed the tactic “works perfectly” by encouraging drivers to decelerate.
The Waze app permits customers to report driving situations equivalent to site visitors jams, accidents and police sightings.
This helps different motorists take various routes or keep away from being caught rushing.
Police areas are typically reported for stationary officers, equivalent to these working velocity traps, however Surrey’s roads policing groups posted on Twitter that they use the perform whereas driving.
The tweet learn: “We definitely don’t drop police markers on Waze at random points on our patrol, nope – never.”
It featured a winking emoji to point that the other is true, earlier than including: “An easy way to get drivers to slow down on our roads – thanks @waze.”
This led to many offended feedback, accusing the pressure of “creating phantom units”, “putting false information” on the app, “lying” and altering pc information “to deceive other users”.
The police Twitter account said that its location alerts are “technically not false” as officers “are there at that very specific point in time”.
It added: “Nowhere on Waze does it say the patrol has to be stationary.”
After options that the marker could be faraway from Waze as soon as different customers report that officers are now not there, the pressure wrote that it has examined its tactic and it “works for around 10-20 minutes”, including: “Every little helps.”
In response to somebody claiming they “never see” site visitors officers regardless of driving “thousands of motorway miles over the last few months”, the police Twitter account wrote: “We’re not responsible for the significant cuts to policing budgets over the years that decimated traffic units across the country.”
AA president Edmund King mentioned the “real issue” with Surrey Police’s use of Waze is “the huge reduction in cops in cars”.
Home Office figures present the variety of full-time equal roads policing officers in England and Wales has fallen by 22% prior to now seven years, from 5,237 in March 2015 to 4,102 in March 2022.
Mr King added: “We know that speed camera signs and interactive smiley face signs do affect driver behaviour and slow some drivers down.
“The use of police markers on Waze to indicate a police presence is just the modern day equivalent of a speed camera sign.
“With five deaths per day on our roads, it is difficult to argue with police tactics that potentially slow drivers down and save lives.
“Law-abiding motorists have nothing to worry about.
“Ultimately we would like to see more cops in cars to reduce broader crime but in the interim the police must do what they can to make roads safer.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk
