YThey had ‘dropped’ him on previous occasions and now things are getting serious. He interior ministerFernando Grande-Marlaska, and the General Director of TrafficPere Navarro, want to put a stop to a phenomenon that is increasingly common: tips about police presence throught social media.
Those notices that are made about the location of police alcohol and drug checks are illegal even if they are carried out through platforms such as Whatsapp o Telegram. For this reason, traffic authorities are studying the way to tighten the law to give a more forceful response to these behaviors that have been described as “unsupportive” and “dangerous.”
Can cause accidents
Marlaska gave an example of why they consider these attitudes as uncivil: “This notice will allow a drunk driver evade control and cause a serious accident at any other point where innocent citizens may be affected. “When someone announces in one of their WhatsApp groups that there is a control, they still come home, but the same has caused others not to arrive“, warned the minister.
It is, therefore, one more measure than those Interior and the DGT want to launch to fight against one of the problems that most concern both organizations: the mix of alcohol and drivingwhich is more present than desirable in our country.
These ‘snitches’ represent “a attack on the waterline of an anti-drinking policy which is a basic and fundamental element of the policy of road safetybecause it saves lives.”
Present and future measures
Although, once these practices were detected, complaints have already been made based on the Citizen Security Law (for hindering controls and reducing their effectiveness), there has been a instruction to the DGT to incorporate the express prohibition of these notices in traffic legislation, as is already happening in Swiss o France.
It is about achieving something similar to what has already happened with the old practice of warn of police presence with high beamswhich is already expressly prohibited in the Traffic Regulations and, in fact, is considered Serious offense.
