Have you seen this? http://www.copalert.com/

To me it is silly, for several reasons:

1.Cops aren't stupid, they know how to hide. No amount of reporting (whether it's headlights, CB radio, or the Internet) is going to make it safer for you and me. Most people couldn't or wouldn't see the cop hiding if the guy in the passenger seat pointed him out. Where? I didn't see no cop.

2.If you depend on the other idiots on the road to do the watching and reporting for you, good luck. Most motorists are idiots anyway and are only concerned about themselves.

3.In lots of places, the cops are always moving. Moving too fast for you and me and to keep track of. No thanks. I can generally get past the easy ones with my V1 radar detector, it's those that move and hide and are steath-like that sometimes confuse me. You know the ones who just pulled off and over within the last 2 minutes. Unless there's a mechanism to report current cop status like "currently writing someone else a ticket", it's less useful. Believe it or not, if you drive by a cop writing someone else a ticket fast enough, he will come get you.

4.What about at night? Looking for cops and road markers and whatever---you might as well just drive slow. I suppose this only works on the highway, too. Not in neighborhoods or suburbs or downtown?

5.What about rolling radar? How is the Internet suppose to keep tracking of multiple cop cars moving all over town in a non-linear fashion? The beauty of a radar detector is that you don't have to bother with the non-radar cops, but with this deal, every cop is reported, now all of a sudden you got cops everywhere.

6.So that was a cop? No it wasn't. Yes it was, didn't you see the antennae? It was unmarked.... No that was something else, cops don't drive Cameros.... I could have sworn that was a cop.

7.Somehow the "nearest" mile marker is not doing it for me. Neither is the last exit. Why is it that you never really know which exit is the next numbered exit?

8.If it works like I think it is suppose to work you'll have thousands of reports to deal with, which means lots of false ones, a waste of time; don't believe me? Look at the speedtrap.com. and you'll never speed again, of course there are speed traps the "entire length" of I-70 from KC to STL.

9.Does no report mean no cop? Are you comfortable with flooring it between Phoenix and Flagstaff because your reports say "no cops spotted..."

10.What good is it? Can anyone see any good from this? Would you use it? No, I mean would you do the reporting or would you just reap the benefits like you do on Kazaa and WinMx and Napster and just don't share but do all the taking? Especially when there's no mechanism to force you to give in order to receive. Depend on THAT at 3am on a lonely highway....!

Ok, enough with the sarcasm, if this works ideally, yes it might be a cool addition to our already substantial arsenal of radar detectors. Is it a replacement? No. Maybe I really didn't read how this deal was suppose to ultimately work but after I understood two things (depends on feedback for the general [blind] public and the delivery of the information via second-hand information [a database]), I almost quit reading and pretty much blew it off. But I could be wrong, I don't know you tell me? In theory, this might work pretty good, but in practice, and for free, not anytime soon. Just like security at my home, I depend on good strong solid reinforced active locks as a barrier to entry, not passive well-connected cameras and alarms and sirens and other alert/notification/tracking systems. Well I did in Minneapolis, not really here in Kansas. My 2 cents.

 

I think there is one really BIG and good incentive; IT'S FREE!!!!

Now this doesn't mean to toss your radar detector out the window, it's just another precautionary measure and the direction that WAP (I think they still call it that) is headed, there are much more promising things coming along and this is just the tip of the iceburg