Hi,
On 26/05/2025 at around 5:00pm, I reported an active police hiding under the tree at Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill (across Jells Park) as “Other Side” alert. Usually, when I reported this, the icon Police would appear immediately. Thinking that it probably doesn’t show for me but may show for others, I checked the Waze History that night. It recorded ZERO eye and 2 thumbs up. To me, this is an evidence Waze didn’t actually show this hazard to the general population
This is not the first time it happened.
On Good Friday, 18/05/2025 around 9:47am, I also reported an active police hiding at exactly the same spot but reported as “Same Side” alert. The same thing happened, no police icon appeared but this time, I can see in my history there was 31 eyes and 3 thumbs up.
So I am wondering given the same spot and the same issue occurring, is there any active blackout alert imposed by Victoria Police to Waze during specific time and period? I think Wazers deserve to know if there are blackouts being imposed.
Regards
Zz
Hi there
Thanks for the query but I may remove your and anyone elses doubt, as an active volunteer for many years - there is NO nbefarious system in place that prevents your right to report police in Waze. It does not exist and never has.
User reports such as police, pothole and so on work on a populairty basis, the more wazers that vote and acknowledge it there the longer it will persist in the map but eventually it will disappear if it is continually not voted.
Dear friend and Waze community! I understand your concern, but lets look from another point of view. What is the idea behind alerting about traffic/police enforcement? If that would be letting others know police is there, I would definelty discourage that. Obstructing law enforcement is not a right path when we think about a safe community and road safety. People with bad intentions can use this information in order to avoid the path and avoid being restrticted when commiting wrong behaviors such as running away from a crime or even avoiding high speeding or drunk driving, which, I think we must agree, are definetly non tolareted conducts. Hope you keep safe and well.
Thank you. Sorry for the late reply. I will monitor future reporting to see if this is just an aberration (hopefully so!) or an opportunity to identify a potential software bug.
A noble response assuming that’s how police is supposed to work… for the community.
As a local, the location where they are reported to hide are a 3 lane arterial with 80km speed limit. It is one of the probably the safest road you can ever drive however it has one unique characteristic, it has a very relatively steep descent/ascend (depending on where you drive from) hill.
As such, people who are driving eastbound will be on a steep descent and will then be up for a speed trap where they may subconciously have let the car glide down, and around the corner is where the police is. It is these people they are hoping to catch. I don’t think that’s quite a noble intention as they way you portray the police.
If you drive westbound towards the ascending hill, you would be driving on an empty road and on that day when I reported the police, it was a dead morning (they usually turn up often when the road is empty, no point putting police during peak traffic, no $$$ to be earned) and if I didn’t know better that spot (eg: tourists), people would be easily booked for running 81/82km because that road would feel like driving on a 100km highway when empty (a honeypot for momentarily absentminded drivers). So no, they are there to make money for the state is essentially bankrupt.
And finally, traffic highway cops don’t chase criminals running away on car. Even if they do, they won’t be able to tell the difference between normal car and stolen car / car driven by criminals. They are just there with their speed gun and laid stationary waiting for the next catch. This is reality and as a local, this is the truth.
But I appreciate your positive thinking. It reinforces me why I joined Waze in the first place, to help save momentarily absentminded people (due to work stress, mentally tired workers) from being taken advantage in the first place.