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U.S. Senators Ask Apple to Remove DUI Checkpoint Apps From App Store

Stupidity on MacRumors and in the federal government, as usual.

The only reason OVI / DUI / DWI checkpoints are legal under the US Constitution and your local state Constitution is because the locations are made public in advance. Your local newspaper (or some other paper of general circulation) will publish the locations a day or so in advance of the police operating the checkpoint. This is what allows the police to pull your car over and detain you despite lacking any probable cause to believe you are drunk. Without that notice (where you are considered to have consented to the stop by driving through the checkpoint), any stopping of your vehicle without probable cause is unlawful and renders any evidence located (such as your breath test or SFSTs) inadmissible in court.

Removing this app is tantamount to the federal government telling private citizens they don't have a right to know where checkpoints are located -- and that knowledge is the only reason checkpoints are legal.

The Senators are stepping in it on this one, and probably not a one of them has anyone on their staff who has ever spent time in a municipal court dealing with a drunk driving case.
 
DUI checkpoints are basically "anything illegal" checkpoints these days. They check for insurance, suspended licenses, etc. This information should be available to anyone, in any form, as long as the law says it's legal.
 
Seems to me that if the government has the right to monitor our behavior, we should have the right to monitor what the government is up to.
Remember that old - fashioned rule called Probable Cause? There was a time when citizens didn't have to explain what they were doing or where they were to police on the street when there was nothing to justify suspicion.
Now we take it for granted that the government can stop us and ask us questions and search our cars when we're not suspected of doing anything more than exercising our freedom to go where we wish.
Meanwhile, I see drunk drivers on the road, and 20 state troopers manning a road block miles away, with no chance of catching said drunk driver because they're not out on patrol.
These Apps allow law abiding citizens to avoid yet another obstacle in their quest to just get somewhere and be left alone without being hassled. Say No Apple, and publish the next round of letters these Senators send. I'll bet they will sound a tad more threatening, and people can see how these government gangsters really operate.
 
There are plenty of websites that do the same thing so therefore they need to petition the websites to censor their sites if they are going to ask apple to censor their app store.
 
Don't pull the app.

Hopefully DWI checkpoints yield such low benefits from these apps that they become extinct although I doubt it. Hassling thousands of honest, sober citizens to catch the 1-2% legally intoxicated drivers isn't worth the price we all pay. I question our freedom in America each time I drive up to a checkpoint. If you're wondering, no I've never received a DWI nor driven intoxicated and I still hate these checkpoints. They don't make me feel safer on the road.
 
GQB said:
I'm simultaneously amused and saddened by the number of people who believe that drunk driving is a constitutionally protected right.
Hope you never have to see the results of the 'patriots' who would have a use for this and then kill innocent people.
This app enables murder. Rationalize all you want.
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Get a clue. No one wants drunk drivers but these checkpoints have VERY little to do with that. Roving patrols do better at catching drunk drivers as does hanging out in front of bars.

The police should not be able to detain you without probable cause. PERIOD. If you are doing nothing wrong the cops should not stop you, EVER.
 
toddybody said:
Sorry man, but if it saves 1 life from drunk driving...it's the right thing to do.
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I was waiting for the "if it saves one life argument" - that spurious argument is why we are losing all individual freedoms in the US and the world.

Approximately 42,000 people dies in car accidents a year. If you outlaw cars you will save 42,000 lives. Isn't that worth it? Not just 1 - 42,000!

In fact, we could make society like a prison, and then we will all be safe.

Although in prisons, which has guards and fences, murders still occur, drugs get in, etc. The whole safety argument is a false argument. I feel we have made a wrong turn in this culture and by people thinking we can legislate a perfect world, we are, in fact, making a living hell.
 
halhiker said:
Drunk driver checkpoints are the biggest law enforcement scam being perpetrated on the public at large. These checkpoints do no better than roving patrols but cops do them because they can hassle the public without probable cause and bust them for other minor infractions. They also more likely to have them in poor neighborhoods where people may be late paying their insurance or vehicle fees. They make big money from impounding poor people's cars.

They pad the bottom line of the Law Enforcement Industrial Complex and so that's why they have them. It has NOTHING to do with justice.
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LOL You sound bitter. How many times have you been busted?
 
habermas said:
What's the idea of DUI checkpoints anyway? Can't police officers just pull over drivers they suspect of DUI if they catch them while on regular patrol? That's how it works here at least. Much less predictable and it negates the utility of the apps in question..
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And the patrols just happen to be in the streets you'd use to get around the checkpoint.

App's like this could have a good effect as well.
Someone who not sure but knows they are close might check and know the chance of getting caught is high so they get a cab.
 
I kind of like the idea of being able to see how piss-poor the police services are in an area. The app only shows how ineffectively these check points are setup.
 
How many of you have been through a checkpoint?

GFLPraxis said:
This is setting a very dangerous precedent for app removals if it goes through.
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Exactly. This made me download Trapster, which warns of flooded roads, construction, etc. Perhaps you (all the people saying it should be pulled) should research the app first.

In addition, I just had the pleasure of going through a sobriety checkpoint a few weeks ago. I rarely drink - gives me an amazing headache, which has earned me the ridicule of college friends for years... it took 20 minutes to get through the checkpoint, and I felt embarrassed and harassed.

Sorry folks, we don't live in a police state. If you want to have police checkpoints everywhere to track your movements, yeah remove this. Otherwise, give those of us who don't feel like having bright lights shined at us and being talked down-to by the cops a way to avoid it.

BTW, can the government demonstrate any impact on law enforcement through the use of websites/apps that display this information? Don't blindly support things that have no data to back them up.
 
its more fun and cheaper for me to enjoy my top shelf bourbons and wines at home while reading macrumors - though i'm not liking how govt preaching to us while they need to be preached themselves
 
jjhny said:
I was waiting for the "if it saves one life argument" - that spurious argument is why we are losing all individual freedoms in the US and the world.

Approximately 42,000 people dies in car accidents a year. If you outlaw cars you will save 42,000 lives. Isn't that worth it? Not just 1 - 42,000!

In fact, we could make society like a prison, and then we will all be safe.

Although in prisons, which has guards and fences, murders still occur, drugs get in, etc. The whole safety argument is a false argument. I feel we have made a wrong turn in this culture and by people thinking we can legislate a perfect world, we are, in fact, making a living hell.
Click to expand...

You counter point is just as silly.
 
madmax14304 said:
Hopefully DWI checkpoints yield such low benefits from these apps that they become extinct although I doubt it. Hassling thousands of honest, sober citizens to catch the 1-2% legally intoxicated drivers isn't worth the price we all pay. I question our freedom in America each time I drive up to a checkpoint. If you're wondering, no I've never received a DWI nor driven intoxicated and I still hate these checkpoints. They don't make me feel safer on the road.
Click to expand...

Lobbying money from MADD and SADD pretty much ensures that random OVI checkpoints will never go away.

There's no political capital in being perceived as "not tough enough" on drunk drivers.
 
halhiker said:
The police should not be able to detain you without probable cause. PERIOD. If you are doing nothing wrong the cops should not stop you, EVER.
Click to expand...

It's the reason they publish notice of checkpoints -- you're considered to have consented to being stopped if you drive through a checkpoint after notice has been published.

It's why I'm shocked Congress is targeting an app that gives that notice. They're attacking the very leg of Constitutional support these checkpoints stand on.
 
People who speed and drive under the influence make me sick. Pull the apps. And when you catch the scum, throw them in jail and take away their licence. The don't deserve to walk among us.
 
complexcommunic said:
Censorship! Don't do it, Apple!
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What, its ok for Apple to censor based on its whims, but not the government?

Actually I think they're both wrong. Shouldn't censor. Once the government starts censoring what information was can access, what else is next?

Bleep out phone calls is someone mentions a DUI checkpoint?
Remove all DUI checkpoint discussions from Google? Remove them entirely from the web?

Censorship is a slippery slope. Apple has invited this level of control because of their own Orwellian rules on the app store.

So much for freedom of speech. We are losing all our supposed 'freedoms' in this country at an alarming rate, and few care or notice.
 
Takeo said:
People who speed and drive under the influence make me sick. Pull the apps. And when you catch the scum, throw them n jail and take away their licence. The don't deserve to walk among us.
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The overwhelming majority of DUI/OVI offenders are otherwise law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who make a mistake and never repeat it again.

Mandatory jail time for OVI charges (which virtually all states now have), in this day and age, is akin to an employment death-sentence for many people who lose their job if they have to do time.

If anything, OVI penalties are already too harsh for first time offenders.
 
miles01110 said:
Personally I find it hard to believe that so drunk as to warrant avoiding a checkpoint will be collected enough to use the app effectively in the first place.
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Anyone saying pull it obviously doesn't EVER drink. In just about every state, 1 beer technically puts you over the limit. Find me anyone who is impaired to drive after 1 beer, or even maybe 3. DUI check points pull EVERYONE over.

I'm totally in favor of things like this as long as organizations like MAD keep lobbying for ridiculous laws. Don't get me wrong, MAD is a very great organization, but kids aren't supposed to drink at all, and are not going to be any less likely to have an accident with a drunk driver because of these apps. Most adults are responsible enough to have a couple of cocktails. Our laws punish everyone, not the alcoholics that really are super drunk and well over the limit. The higher limits that used to allow someone 2 or 3 beers still punished the alcoholics. But to the OP's point... no, really plastered people wouldn't be using this app. They're the ones driving into the phone poles or people that will be on the roads anyway
 
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Dui

If I am sober enough to go through the process and find out where the checkpoints are then I should be able to use the software.
 
sinsin07 said:
You counter point is just as silly.
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He makes a wonderful counterpoint.

People are willing to give up freedoms one inch at a time. But when you realize how much you stand to lose, or how much you've already lost, it takes on a different perspective. What is going on now, with Apple's control over what applications you can run on your general computing device, would have been deemed silly just a few years ago. But somehow its different because this computer is an iPad and not a Windows PC.
 
I am going to say that I am in favor of not having Apps whose only purpose is to assist people in breaking laws and also increase the possibility that someone innocent will get injured or killed because of the use of such an Application.

In other words if there is no legitimate use for an App other than to break the law and put people's lives in dangers, I think it is reasonable to ask Apple to review their policy on such things.

Anyone who drives drunk these days has major problems. Anyone who uses a phone/tablet app to assist them in driving drunk is a complete arse and I can only hope bad things happen to them.
 
GQB said:
I'm simultaneously amused and saddened by the number of people who believe that drunk driving is a constitutionally protected right.
Hope you never have to see the results of the 'patriots' who would have a use for this and then kill innocent people.
This app enables murder. Rationalize all you want.
Click to expand...

Nobody said that drunk driving was a constitutionally protected right. The ability to tell someone how to drive drunk is a protected right. It may not be one that you agree with but taking away that right would be a slippery slope of banning speech that people could find potentially dangerous.

And guess what -- Safari enables you to learn how to do all sorts of things that can lead to murder. You know what, I suggest you stop using your web browser right now -- you're in danger of becoming a murderer!
 
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