DUI Checkpoint Apps Banned from iPhone
It’s getting harder for tech-savvy drivers in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and throughout the country to pinpoint the locations of police drunken-driving checkpoints: Apple will ban from its online store future applications that inform users of checkpoint locations not publicized by police.
It’s a move that doesn’t come as a big surprise but comes three months after four Democratic U.S. senators:
- Charles Schumer of New York
- Harry Reid of Nevada
- Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
- Tom Udall of New Mexico
asked three smartphone manufacturers to quit selling such downloadable apps or to remove the DUI checkpoint function.
Canada-based Research in Motion, maker of Blackberry smartphones, pulled the apps immediately. Apple, manufacturer of the iPhone, and Google, which makes the Android, did not. Last month at a hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, Schumer pressed top executives from Apple and Google to restrict sales.
On Wednesday, Apple updated the review guidelines for its App Store: “Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected,” the new guidelines say.
The senators applauded Apple’s move to restrict future such apps but said the company also should remove current ones.
USA Today reported in March on the growing popularity of free or cheap, downloadable applications that help drivers avoid getting nailed for road offenses such as red-light camera violations and speed-trap busts. The report noted that the DUI function troubled some police agencies.
Fuzz Alert, one popular app that had the DUI checkpoint function, was altered last month to remove it, Fuzz Alert CEO Steve Croke said. “Fuzz Alert was not a DUI app and was never intended to be a DUI app,” he said. “(It) was designed as an audio-visual electronic device to warn drivers of traffic enforcement and speed impediment areas (such as) speed cameras, red light cameras and road hazards. The DUI aspect was never a core component to Fuzz Alert, so we took it out.”
If you or a loved one has been arrested for a DUI in Ft. Lauderdale, it is imperative that you contact a Ft. Lauderdale DUI Lawyer from Musca Law to discuss your rights.
