Poor U.S. Senators. They go through the trouble of supporting local governments’ law-enforcement ideas like roadside speed radars, DUI checkpoints, and red-light-running cameras. But then people go and download smart-phone apps that help them avoid the traps. The nerve! Well, Senators are not to be trifled with by tech-savvy drivers and their iPhones. KING 5 reports today that Senators Harry Reid of Nevada, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Charles Schumer of New York, and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey sent a letter to Apple demanding that the iPhone application Phantom Alert be axed from the phone’s app library, calling it “harmful to society.”Phantom Alert’s CEO Joseph Scott disagrees, saying:”If the Senators really understood what we are doing and aim to achieve they would actually support us. When drivers get alerts for DUI checkpoints on their smart phones and GPS, they will think twice about drinking and driving.”Washington doesn’t have DUI checkpoints, but it does have red-light cameras, and according to Scott, 109,000 people in the Seattle area use Phantom Alert.The cameras are a major source of revenue for cities that use them, so it’s not surprising that a phone app that helps people avoid the cash-generators would be decried by local and federal leaders. But if law enforcement and local government is smart enough to use newfangled technology to catch speedy/drunk drivers, shouldn’t the public be able to use its own technology to avoid it?Follow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.
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