The New York City Police Department is threatening Waze (and Google by association) with legal action. The police say that some alerts the app sends to drivers makes their jobs more difficult and therefore threaten public safety.

One of the major complaints from law enforcement is that Waze alerts people to the presence of police, which allows drivers to avoid them. For example, DUI checkpoints are becoming obsolete because drivers are aware of them ahead of time and able to steer clear, making it more difficult for the police to keep drunk drivers off the road.

Speed traps are less likely to be successful as well because the app allows people to enter the location of police when they see them, warning others through the app. Police also point out that in order to report whatever hazard there might be, drivers have to be using their phone. That constitutes distracted driving, which is against the law.

Google, which bought Waze in 2013, argues that the app encourages people to drive more safely. If a speed trap encourages people to slow down without getting a ticket, where’s the harm really? Google’s response didn’t address the DUI checkpoint issue, which seems like it would be harder to rationalize. Why alert people unless to help drunk people avoid them?

Although, even if the app didn’t specifically say that there was a DUI checkpoint ahead, people would still see that there was congestion ahead and avoid the area without knowing why.

It’s thought that Google bought out Waze as a means to gather social data on traffic patterns, which helps the tech giant in other ways. Anything to gather data, after all. If Waze were to drop these popular features, fewer people might use it, which would mean less data for Google.

You can definitely see the police perspective on it, but that doesn’t mean we want to give up being able to avoid a speeding ticket.