Chicago DUI attorney thinks DUI checkpoint apps put the power back in the hands of citizens

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about apps that could prevent a DUI arrest.  UnThis Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about apps that could prevent a DUI arrest.

If a driver is sufficiently impaired so as to be unable to operate a car safely, I have doubts about his or her ability to use a cell phone app to 'thwart' law enforcement. What's your perspective?

April 17, New York, New York:

FRIENDS don’t let friends drive drunk. If they can’t take their friend’s keys away, they take their smartphone. Why? The phone may have an app that can help them avoid sobriety checkpoints.

Last month, Senators Harry Reid,Charles E. Schumer, Frank R. Lautenberg and Tom Udall asked Apple, Google and Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerrys, to remove apps from their online stores that help drunken drivers evade sobriety checkpoints.

On March 23, the day after the letter went out, the group said BlackBerry agreed to pull the apps and thanked the group for bringing them to its attention.

Apple and Google? Nothing.

Buzzed, a smartphone app that shows nothing but sobriety checkpoints, is matched with a Web site with a self-explanatory address, EveryCheckpoint.com.

PhantomAlert was one of the apps that Research In Motion pulled from its online store at the request of the senators. R.I.M. did not respond to requests for comment. But Joseph Scott, chief executive of PhantomAlert, defended real-time alerts of sobriety checkpoints as a convenience to law-abiding citizens who do not want to be delayed by a checkpoint. “Assuming someone who gets a D.U.I.-checkpoint alert is going to drink and drive is like assuming anyone who owns a gun is a murderer,” he said.

 Still, whether you wish to avoid the headache or the thought of having to stand on one leg to prove your innocence is not your cup of tea, you may want to check out these apps.