DWI checkpoint app? Not on your iPhone

By SFR

After pressure from a group of Democratic lawmakers including US Sen. Tom Udall, Apple Inc will no longer offer smartphone apps listing DWI checkpoints.

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Udall, along with three other Democratic senators, has been calling on smartphone manufacturers to ban apps, such as Trapster and DUI Dodger, that allow drivers to learn the location of DWI checkpoints.

"DWI Checkpoint Apps empower drunk drivers to break the law and, as we know all too well in New Mexico, the consequences can be deadly," Udall says in this morning's press release.

Research in Motion, the company that makes the Blackberry smartphone, agreed immediately to ban checkpoint apps, but Apple (and Google) at first refused. It was only yesterday that Apple yielded to legislative pressure and amended its rules to ban DWI checkpoint apps.

But the other legislators behind the effort--US Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Charles Schumer, D-NY and Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ--claim the issue of DWI evasion will continue as long as such apps remain on the market.

SFR has a call in to Udall's office on how many such apps actually exist and what can be done to prevent their proliferation under other smartphone providers.

Santa Fe Reporter

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