Trapster Mobile App Now Working With The Police [Police Agencies Start Teaming Up With Trapster, Begin Giving Speed Trap & DUI Checkpoint Locations]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Friday, 26. March 2010 under: Mobile/Cell Phones

When it comes to a mobile phone application that was designed to crowd source information on things like speed traps you may not expect those details to be coming from the police, except that is exactly what is beginning to happen with Trapster.

For those that have not yet seen the Trapster app, it offers information on things like speed traps, locations of red light cameras, DUI checkpoints, accidents, construction zones and many more items that could affect your drive. The nice part about Trapster is that it is available on a wide variety of platforms including the iPhone, Android, webOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia phones as well as Garmin and TomTom devices. And for those that are thinking that its dangerous to use your phone while driving, that is taken care of, the app will run and give voice alerts when a problem area comes near.

But getting back to the police, and the fact they are giving away information on their own locations. According to the officer from the Travis County Sheriffs Office;

“If I can get my compliance without having to write a ticket, I’ve done my job.”

And when you think of it like that it sort of makes sense. After all their job should not be to write tickets, but to ensure the public is driving safely. Seems to me that making people aware of a speed trap is a pretty good way to ensure they will drive slow.

In addition to alerting the public about speed trap locations, the Travis County Sheriffs are also entering information about dangerous intersections, road closures, accidents and traffic jams.

Additionally, when referring to the Trapster app, Trapster Owner & Creator Pete Teneteillo stated that;

“You can only only catch one person at a time with a laser, but you can inform everybody on the road.”

As of now the Travis County Sheriffs Office is the only agency to be officially working with Trapster, however Tenereillo stated that about 100 officers around the country have been using it on an unofficial level. As far as setting up the officers, they are typically being set up as moderators so they can add the official information at any time. And the data that they input will be officially marked with a badge icon. That way the public will know its coming from a trusted source.

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