AG Biden objects to apps warning of DUI checkpoints

Calling it a “how-to” guide to evade DUI checkpoints, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is calling upon Google and Apple to ban smartphone applications that publicize the locations of police stops and allows users to tip off other drivers. 

 

Biden and Maryland AG Doug Gansler have written to the Senior Vice President for iPhone Software at Apple and the Chief Executive Officer of Google calling for them to remove these apps.

“We are urging Apple and Google to do the right thing and join us in keeping drunk drivers off our roads, not provide them with a road map to avoid checkpoints that are meant to protect our families,” Biden said.

Gansler called the apps “nothing more than an overt method of circumventing laws that were specifically enacted to save lives.”

The two Attorneys General say the applications are available for download by users of the Apple iPhone and Google Android phone and specify locations where police checkpoints are taking place.  Users can also use the app to notify other drivers of DUI checkpoints. 

The Delaware Office of Highway Safety often publicizes in advance the locations of DUI checkpoints, frequently held on weekends and around holidays.  A recent enforcement campaign around Saint Patrick’s Day (March 12th and March 17th – 19th) resulted in 59 arrests for DUI.

The OHS says 38% of Delaware’s 101 vehicle deaths in 2010 were alcohol-related.