Apple, Google Pressured to Remove DUI Checkpoint Apps

Smartphone apps can be very helpful. Sometimes too helpful, according to state officials in Maryland and Delaware.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and  Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden called on Google and Apple to ban smartphone applications that help users avoid drunk-driving checkpoints. 

The applications, which can be easily downloaded for Apple iPhone and Google Android phones, provide the locations of police checkpoints and allow users to report checkpoints to others. 

The two sent letters last Friday by mail and fax to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Apple’s Scott Forstall, senior vice president overseeing iPhone software, asking them to do “the responsible thing” and remove the apps from their online stores.

Apple did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages, The Washington Post reported. Google said in a statement that it removes applications that violate its Android policies against content such as sexually explicit material and hate speech, adding that while the attorneys general did not identify specific applications, the applications described in the letter do not appear to violate the Android content policies.

“These smartphone applications give drunk drivers a ‘how-to' guide to evade DUI checkpoints and endanger the lives of innocent citizens on our roads,” said Gansler.  “We strongly urge Google and Apple to take the most responsible and reasonable step and ban these types of applications altogether.  These are nothing more than an overt method of circumventing laws that were specifically enacted to save lives.”

“I'm deeply concerned that these smartphone applications reduce our ability to get impaired drivers off the streets and protect our families from the tragic consequences of drinking and driving,” said Biden.  “Automobiles with drunk drivers behind the wheel are deadly weapons.  I am urging Apple to do the right thing and join us in keeping drunk drivers off our roads, not provide them with a road map to avoid checkpoints that are meant to protect our families.”

The state attorneys generals' campaign is similar to that launched last week by Democratic U.S. SenatorsHarry Reid of Nevada, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Charles Schumer of New York and Tom Udall of New Mexico.

In their letter, the senators noted that more than 10,000 Americans die each year in alcohol-related crashes.