The measure was enshrined in law in 2019 and aims to prevent dangerous individuals from using mobile applications to their advantage. The reporting of police checks on Waze or Coyote-type applications may be prohibited temporarily and in certain cases, but not for speed checks, according to an implementing decree published in the Official Journal on Tuesday. From 1 November, the prefects or the Minister of the Interior will be able to prohibit the “rebroadcasting of any message or any indication sent by users of an electronic driving or navigation assistance service”.
This provision is limited to blood alcohol and narcotics checks, with a maximum suspension of reports for two hours, or roadblocks to intercept wanted persons (kidnapping alerts, terrorism), with a maximum suspension of twelve hours.
On a proposal from the police or the gendarmerie, the prefect may communicate to the services concerned the time and place of the checks, within a radius of ten kilometers, or two kilometers in built-up areas.
Drivers' Defense League expresses fears
Coyote said on Tuesday that its goal was to "bring more safety" to its users, "by helping them to adapt their speed and their driving to these dangers". "The cases of one-off inhibitions provided for by the decree (anti-crime checks, and alcohol and drug tests), for a defined period and in a given area, do not fall within this framework, so we do not have no qualms (to apply them), ”continued the French company.
Coyote pointed out that he had already deactivated reports after, for example, the terrorist attacks in 2015, in order to be sure that they "cannot be diverted for the benefit of one or more dangerous individuals who wish to thwart police checks" . The League for the Defense of Drivers said they feared “the next step”: “the eventual ban on reporting road checks”. "Motorists and bikers are more often than in turn the target of laws and decrees aimed at expanding an already over-developed repressive arsenal," said an official of the association.
In June 2019, the National Assembly adopted the principle of this temporary blocking of the signaling of road checks, within the framework of the mobility law. Speed controls, the possible introduction of which caused controversy while the “yellow vests” crisis was in full swing, had not been included in the law. This device "makes it possible to remove the most dangerous individuals from the road", in the event of a kidnapping alert, for "escapees from prison, escapees from psychiatric hospitals", or for terrorists, explained Zivka Park, the co-rapporteur (LREM) of the law.