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DC’s Top Cop Calls iPhone Speed Trap App Users “Cowardly”

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 1:58 PM

This latest piece of iPhone news just goes to show you that you don’t need any logical reasoning skills to be Washington DC’s Police Chief. Cathy Lanier, the US capitol’s Top Cop, apparently doesn’t like the fact that speed-trap and red-light camera tracking iPhone applications, such as Trapster (iTunes link), are helping DC motorists avoid being caught by the fuzz. Ms Lanier told The Examiner that she thinks that these types of iPhone applications are “designed to circumvent law enforcement — law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives.” She even goes so far as to call the iPhone applications a “cowardly tactic.”

trapster-iphone

The Washington DC area boasts 10% of the red-light and speed cameras in the entire US – that’s a whopping 290 cameras throughout the greater DC area. All those cameras generated some $1 billion in annual revenue from 2005 to 2008, so it’s obvious that those speed-trap systems are big money for the nation’s capitol. In comparison, the current fiscal year is only expected to see $29 million in revenue from speed and red-light cameras.

So, why is Lanier upset? Doesn’t a drop in revenue from camera-generated tickets mean that DC drivers are actually driving slower and more safely? Does it matter why these drivers are driving slower? We’re not sure why she’s pissed, but seeing annual revenue drop down to 3% of the previous years’ bottom line would bunch up anyone’s panties.

[Via: WashingtonExaminer]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Ricky Cadden

    LMAO, if that ain’t the pot calling the kettle black. This cop is upset because consumers are now using technology to avoid the technology that she is using to catch them?

    I like that it’s cowardly for *us* to use automated processes to avoid cops, but it’s not cowardly or lazy for them to use automated processes to ‘catch’ us.

    Stupid cop.