The operation of Waze alerts allows any driver warn other users about incidents that threaten driving. Once one of these incidents is discovered, the user can report it with a couple of taps in the Waze app. This concerns the location of mobile police radars and the police themselves.

Users telling the Waze community where the police are hiding is hardly adequate for authorities to spot potential dangers lurking on the roads. For this reason, the police of Surrey, one of the counties of England, has decided to take the opposite step: instead of hiding, they gave away their position on Waze. Constantly. According to Waze users, too much.

Surrey authorities “trolled” Waze users in the county by filling the app with police notices. These notices, communicated by the authorities themselves, managed to reduce the speed of the vehicles on those roads that were the target of the agents; creating controversy about a possible inappropriate use of the notices.

As detailed by the Surrey police themselves On twitter:

We definitely don’t drop Police markers in Waze at random points on our patrol, nope – ever 😉

An easy way to get drivers to slow down on our roads – thanks @waze.

Using irony, the Surrey authorities warned of the ad campaign they were carrying out in Waze. And without these warnings being false, all positions were actually marked by the police at designated places. This was specified before a response on Twitter:

Technically it’s not fake. We are there at that specific point in time. 😉

As the agents demonstrated, thanks to Waze they were able to carry out a speed reduction campaign on the roads of Surrey: with the proximity of the positions marked in the app drivers took their foot off the accelerator; an effect similar to that achieved in Spain with false radar boxes. All due to the enormous popularity of Waze among drivers.

According to statements by the Surrey Police to The Guardian, the temporary notices from the police they managed to reduce the speed of the vehicles for about 10-15 minutes after the alert was published in Waze (app users can deny the incident; after several denials the alert disappears). This strategy was not only a proof of concept, but also a public denunciation by the police: the Surrey traffic authorities warn of the progressive reduction in the resources allocated to traffic units.

More information | Surrey Police Twitter

Via | Guardian