Faced with successive budget cuts and a lack of staff, the British police officers in the County of Surrey have found a new way to encourage motorists to slow down: the addition of false controls on Waze. A trick that works.
As you know, reporting police checks on apps like Waze was almost banned in France. Finally, the Constitutional Council canceled this measure in November 2021. In fact, this practice is still tolerated. However, it remains very badly perceived by the police.
Across the Channel, users of Waze and other mapping services can also report traffic stops. And justly, the Surrey County Police have decided to exploit this bad habit of motorists to their advantage.
Indeed and for some time now, the police of this county even report bogus traffic checks on Waze. “We absolutely don’t randomly put police markers on Waze for our patrols, no – ever. An easy way to slow down drivers on our roads. Thank you Waze”, can we read on the official Surrey Police Twitter account.
We definitely don’t drop Police markers on Waze at random points on our patrol, nope – never 😉
An easy way to get drivers to slow down on our roads – thanks @waze. pic.twitter.com/rrv9I9LJJ6
— Roads Policing – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) August 29, 2022
British police report fake checks on Waze
With the irony that characterizes British humour, the police therefore recognize that certain checkpoints are totally imaginary, and that by extension no patrol is assigned to this specific location. Nevertheless, these false checks are placed at strategic points that are particularly accident-prone. You would have understood it, the aim is to encourage motorists to slow down despite the obvious absence of roadside checks.
“We are not responsible for the drastic budget cuts in recent years that have decimated police forces dedicated to road safety,” added the Surrey Police Twitter account. For the Surrey police, this ruse provides some measure of action, despite budget cuts and understaffing.
It should be specified that the lifespan of these false reports is not particularly long on Waze. Indeed, it is enough for several users to claim that the control is non-existent on the application to have the marker in question removed from the map. According to Surrey Police, on average, a dummy control remains displayed between 10 and 20 minutes. As a reminder, Waze has recently been full of new features, such as support for Apple Music or the display of the cheapest gas stations closest to your location.
