• 06
  • May
    2011

"When it comes to drunk driving, there should not be an app for that," says Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York). Schumer, along with three other senators, recently spoke out against smartphone applications by various manufacturers that alert drivers to up-coming sobriety checkpoints, roving sobriety patrols, speed traps and other measures that law enforcement officials take to apprehend drunk drivers and reckless drivers.

Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of the Blackberry smartphone, has already pulled one of its sobriety checkpoint applications from its online marketplace. The senators had requested that RIM, Apple and Google all remove the sobriety checkpoint alert apps and other similar applications from their online stores because the applications posed a risk to public safety.

Applications Allow Motorists to Share Information - That's Not a Crime

A chief executive of one of the apps yanked from Blackberry's online store argued that his application has been misjudged - users of the smartphone applications are not committing crimes by reporting information on sobriety checkpoints and drunk driving patrols to other smartphone users. An industry representative questioned governmental intervention to prohibit legal, commercial transactions. In fact, some smartphone users might use the applications to avoid congestion and delay that can come with sobriety checkpoints.

As technology and information sharing become more widespread, old-fashioned police techniques such as sobriety checkpoints may require an update to find impaired drivers on the road. Smartphone users clearly have a right to conduct legal commercial transactions and to avail themselves to tools that allow them to avoid traffic and delay. Until Congress or state lawmakers take action, the makers of sobriety checkpoint alert apps should be allowed to sell them through online stores.

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