NYPD Wishes Google, Waze Had Never Heard Of This First Amendment Thing

I like it when police try their cease-and-desist intimidation tactics on somebody who understands their rights.

The New York Police Department sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google over its traffic app’s crowdsourced police information. If you are familiar with our previous cease-and-desist coverage, you’ll know that any time an organization demands that another person stop doing what they are legally allowed to do, hilarity ensues.

From CNET:

In a letter sent Saturday from Ann Prunty, acting deputy commissioner of legal matters at the NYPD, the authorities “demand that Google LLC, upon receipt of this letter, immediately remove this function from the Waze application.”

The sternly worded letter continues: “Individuals who post the locations of DWI checkpoints may be engaging in criminal conduct since such actions could be intentional attempts to prevent and/or impair the administration of the DWI laws and other relevant criminal and traffic laws.”

If you’ve ever used Waze, you know that all the app says is “police reported ahead.” It doesn’t say “Officer Friendly’s shift ends at 2.” It doesn’t say, “Throw your beer out of the window now.” It just tells you that cops are around; you can do with that information what you will.

Every one of the three words it does say are protected speech based on publicly available information. If I see the police, I have a right to say something. Hell, “see something, say something” is a damned motto now.

NYPD wants Google to stop saying “5-0, 5-0” every time a cop shows up. But alerting your community to the presence of police is essential to every community worth being a part of. If my neighbor is peaceably enjoying his backyard, I’m going to say, “Hey man, cops are up the street.” If he chooses to stamp out his joint at that point or not, it’s not my concern. I’m just being a good neighbor.

The issue is especially important because alerting your fellow citizens to ICE raids is a moral requirement for anybody who would call themselves a decent person. If you see an ICE patrol, you best act like Paul Revere until you hit water.

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I would love to see NYPD sue freaking Google as if the First Amendment doesn’t exist. Then Google could go anti-SLAPP on them and, like, end up owning NYPD or something.

I’m sure the government would like to find a way to stop people from alerting others to their presence. But the First Amendment doesn’t work that way. If prisoners can bang cups against to bars to let people know when corrections officers are in the vicinity, motorists can tell Waze when they pass a donut shop.

NYPD demands that Google’s Waze stop revealing DWI checkpoints [CNET]


Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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