Legal Aspect

[koalapanda]

I am a baby wazer in Toronto, concern about the legal aspect such as marking police or camera location, we can get ticket if we alert other drivers by signal head light, same token, if marked in waze, any implication?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I am a baby wazer in Toronto, concern about the legal aspect such as marking police or camera location, we can get ticket if we alert other drivers by signal head light, same token, if marked in waze, any implication?

Good question. The same thinking, "signal using headlamps" to warn other drivers also applied until recently in the US. That was struck down as an infringement of free speech. I am unsure how Canada law would apply in the case of Waze. Police would likely have to do an awful lot of work to figure out it was you: use Waze to get the name of the wazer, go through legal actions required to get your email address from Waze, go through legal actions required to get your real identity from your email address, etc. The amount of time and effort to catch someone who tagged the location of a speed trap just doesn't seem worth it. And if you're running Waze in anonymous mode and/or never sign in with a real account, they'd have to go through legal actions to get Waze to try to correlate to your smartphone device, and then go through your carrier to find out who you are. I'm not certain Waze can even associate an anonymous post with a device id, though.

[koalapanda]

Thanks to AlanoftheBerg for the prompt input. Happy driving, black Friday and holiday season.

[PalmettoC]

I just thought I would respond to this since I am a police officer in the US. The goal of speed enforcement isn't to generate revenue, but to get people to obey the law and prevent wrecks and people getting hurt. If a person flashes their lights at other vehicles to alert them that the police are ahead and they need to slow down, then essentially helping do what we are trying to do

[epurvee]

PalmettoC, an Augusta Georgia wazer here, so not too far from you. I wish all police departments were like yours, however I know for a fact that there are many departments here in GA that use tickets as a revenue stream and set up traps in areas where the speed changes specifically to ticket drivers, not to get drivers to drive safely. I know this as I serve with several police officers in my national guard unit who openly admit what their departments do.

[PalmettoC]

Oh. I don't disagree with you. We do have some small towns here that are the same way, but I don't think they would utilize the resources and expense to track someone down for posting that there was a speed trap ahead on Waze. If they are having to be that desperate to generate revenue in the first place, I don't think they are going to want to spend extra money. Besides, there are so many other sites out there that are solely for the purpose of notifying about speed traps. In the US, the ACLU and news media would have a field day with that one for violating a persons freedom of speech. I know the OP was from Canada, but I am pretty sure it would be pretty much the same thing there as well!