I have no doubt that police officers who object to the cop-reporting feature of Waze are sincere in their belief that traffic cops are being put in danger by people reporting the whereabouts of said traffic cops, but that doesn’t mean that such fears are in any way reasonable.

In sum, this is not about “risk management.” It’s about “fear management.” It’s not like Waze is publishing the home addresses of police officers. And if a *UNIFORMED* traffic officer who is on duty is afraid of a *DANGEROUS* criminal knowing where he or she is, then he or she shouldn’t be carrying a badge.

Deterrence is the most effective form of policing, which is the primary reason why so many police are put in clearly identifiable uniforms and in clearly marked vehicles. Other than being able to catch a traffic offender unaware, why would any uniformed police officer want to hide? If anything, Waze makes the job of policing easier, as it makes police more visible and (thus) more of a deterrent to bad behavior.

. . . a much more promising commercial spinoff of Wikipedia which I profiled in a recent blog post.