Image credit – Matt Blaze
While you probably shouldn’t be speeding, chances are if you are speeding and you see a police car in front of you, you will slow down. However if you didn’t see a police car and maybe saw a car that looks like it could be a Google Maps car, chances are you’ll ignore it and keep driving at the same pace, right?
However it turns out that maybe you should pay more attention in the future because according to reports, such a vehicle was discovered being used by the Philadelphia Police Department. The vehicle was an unmarked police vehicle and was also equipped with a license plate reader, and a dubious Google Maps decal placed on the side, which we guess upon further inspection doesn’t look like it could be real, but given its unmarked status it would have been easy to fool others.
In a statement made to Motherboard, Lt. John Stanford said, “We have been informed that this unmarked vehicle belongs to the police department; however, the placing of any particular decal on the vehicle was not approved through any chain of command. Once this was brought to our attention, it was ordered that the decals be removed immediately.”
Google has also issued a statement saying, “We are currently looking into the matter.” It is unclear as to why the car had the Google Maps sticker on it, presumably as a disguise, but we have to wonder if there have been instances of such a tactic being used elsewhere in the past.
Filed in . Read more about Google, Google Maps and Legal.