As long as there have been cops, there have been people who try to outsmart them.....Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras.
That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints.
"I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Examiner. "It's designed to circumvent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives."
The new technology streams to iPhones and global positioning system devices, sounding off an alarm as drivers approach speed or red-light cameras.
With every advancement in law-enforcement technology, there have been inventions to counter them. The radar detector that alerts speeding drivers of radar guns up ahead is the most obvious example. Alerting other drivers to speed traps by flashing your bright lights is the low-tech example of this. Who couldn't have predicted that the iPhone would eventually develop and app. for intersection-camera detection? Now it's the cop's turn to figure out how to defeat the iPhone.
This is just the long, storied game of cat-and-mouse that we scofflaws play with the cops. We try to get away with stuff, and they try to catch us. It's the natural way of the world...just like dogs chasing cats.
Oh, and don't let the cops fool you. Intersection cameras are not about public safety, they're about finding new ways of generating revenue without a cop chasing you down to write the ticket.
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