Paranoia may have reached an all-time high when a New York woman told a police officer responding to a family trouble report that she knew exactly when the officer would arrive by tracking him using Trapster on her iPhone. Sure enough, there on the phone was a satellite view of the woman’s house, with a yellow ring marketing the officer’s car in the driveway.
You see, the woman told the officer that Trapster “has many applications including sending an alarm to the phone whenever police vehicles are within a one mile radius of the phone.” The officer came back with a partner to test it out. One officer left their GPS running in his car while the other shut his off. And wouldn’t you know it, a yellow ping showed on the iPhone, marking the police vehicle located in the driveway, where the officer was standing holding the iPhone. No yellow ping showed on the other police car. Case solved . . . now what to do with the last 45 minutes of this episode.
This account went into a police intel bulletin sent to an estimated 30,000 police officers nationwide in early October, and the e-mails from law enforcement have been unyielding–many nasty, several trying to elicit an admission that Trapster can track police cars via GPS signals, as if GPS receivers transmit (in case it’s not already clear, for the record it is technically impossible to track a GPS receiver).
The story even received media attention when the San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com blog released this post, “No, iPhones can’t track cop cars“.
A Sample Email from an officer in Colorado
“Hello, I would appreciate any assistance you can offer in this matter. A recent report has advised my agency that a patrol car was actually tracked while in motion, responding to a call. The reportee of the call showed the patrol unit their phone upon arrival at the scene and advised the patrol unit that they were tracking their response to the location. The patrol unit advised that the iphone in fact did show a yellow indicator at the exact location they were at which was a residence. All of the documentation that I have read on your website does not indicate that this is possible, however I would appreciate verification that your application does not have the capability to track a vehicle in motion. Is it possible that the reportee placed a marker at the location upon the patrol units arrival? Thank you,”
The Bulletin in Question
Here is a copy of the complete bulletin: AASU Intel Bulletin 10/21/09
The officer stated “As I looked at her phone there was a satellite view of her house and the surrounding neighborhood with a yellow ping marking my police vehicle in her driveway.” What he was referring to was actually the GPS location blip that indicates where on the map the mobile phone is located. This picture was taken today of Trapster running in our CEO’s Jeep in our office parking lot.
Safer Roads for All
We at Trapster want the roads to be a safer place. We are continuously improving the application to aid the police, fire officials, and Trapster users — we’ve received and responded to feedback from everyone. Trapster already has traffic / incident info from Google, POIs for school zones, and even turn by turn directions to police and fire stations. Because Trapster users aren’t always trying to avoid the police. We have already started working on adding amber alerts to our splash screen, user generated accident reports, user generated brush fire reports, “children at play” zones, road hazards, and even road kill (this is becoming a big problem in Denver and Europe – hit a dead buck in the road and you will most likely crash or cause a crash).
Creative Commons: The Fun Times Guide | Police Parked Picture
