To the Editor:

As a Waze traffic app user (a proud Wazer) I read with interest Andrew Lind’s article of Feb. 5, 2015, which presented the concerns of some law enforcement officers about the use of this application by the general public as a means to stalk, locate and endanger officers.

I submit that their request of Google to disable that portion of the app, which is used by the public to notify fellow drivers of the presence of police and patrols is simply a useless solution to an imaginary problem.

As one of the quoted officers admitted, there has been “no known connections” to the killing of police officers and the users of this phone app.

Indeed, no data was presented to support the concerns of law enforcement.

I harken the reader back to the days when the use of citizen’s band radios to warn of police activity was ubiquitous. I do not recall reading any media accounts back then which articulated similar concerns by police and sheriffs’ departments.

A sound case could be made that Waze gives motorists prior and sufficient warning to police activity on the highway and provide them the impetus to reduce speed or change lanes for the sake of the safety of highway patrolmen. Further, the use of Waze assists motorists in avoiding congested traffic areas, which may be the result of an accident response by public safety officials, thus creating a safer buffer for those officials to perform their services.

Jay Gunn
Franklin