Guardia Civil asks drivers to stop helping the bad guys

Mobile phone apps such as Social Drive, Waze and Google Maps can be used to share information about speed radar locations or police checkpoints in real time, as well as WhatsApp groups where users snitch on these points. But the Guardia Civil and Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) warn that users could be inadvertently helping criminals.

“There may be someone fleeing from a crime and it does not seem reasonable that they can know where the police patrols are,” the DGT said in a statement.

Bartolomé Vargas, a lawyer working for the road safety department, said these apps and groups are harmful because they allow drunken people, criminals and even terrorists, to know where the police are and evade them.

Héctor Teixeira, a Guradia Civil officer issued a starker warning. “If someone thinks of sending a message through any application, advising about the location of a police checkpoint, let them think that their mother, their wife, their daughter is in the boot of a car. Many criminals are using these applications to go find alternative routes and elude the police,” he said.

“In Vigo there was an intervention where a girl was forced into a vehicle. The luck was that she managed to leave her phone activated which gave 112 information about her location. In this way, the vehicle was intercepted by a Guardia Civil crew who managed to free her. If this kidnapper had consulted any of these apps, the consequences would have been dire,” he added.