If drivers have the Waze app on their phone, they will automatically receive notifications meant to encourage them to move over and help keep officers safe.
CARMEL, Ind. — Carmel police are using new technology to warn drivers when officers are responding to an emergency nearby.
The system is called “Pursuit Alert.”
If drivers have the Waze app on their phone, they will automatically receive notifications meant to encourage them to move over and help keep officers safe.
When Carmel police are headed to an emergency, involved in a pursuit, or conducting a traffic stop, drivers in the area will now get a new “heads up” to slow down and look around — a warning delivered through the Waze app.
“It’s essentially to give notifications to the motoring public that there’s an emergency vehicle in the area,” said Carmel Police Chief Drake Sterling.
The technology was added to nearly all Carmel patrol cars about a month ago, making Carmel the first community in the Midwest to use it, according to police.
The goal is to protect both drivers and officers from danger.
“Lately, there’s been a number of officers whose vehicles have been hit, and so we want to avoid that,” Sterling said.
Here’s how it works: drivers receive an alert on Waze when a patrol car is within a 1.5-mile radius, warning motorists to move over or notifying them when a pursuit is underway.
“And it actually moves with the radius of where the emergency vehicle is,” Sterling said. “So if there’s an emergency vehicle on the move — whether they’re running lights and sirens or getting ready to make a traffic stop — it’s going to tell you that it’s in your area.”
The safety technology comes as dangers are increasing from drivers failing to move over for emergency vehicles.
Several recent crashes have involved Indiana State Police troopers, including one on Interstate 465 where a trooper’s patrol car was rear-ended a few days ago, while stopped along the highway. It was not the first time that trooper had been struck while conducting a traffic stop or assisting a stranded motorist.
“Not the first time — second or third. It’s actually the fourth time,” said ISP Sgt. John Perrine.
Perrine said officers rely on passing drivers to remain alert and follow the law.
“We’re putting a lot of faith in those thousands of cars that are passing us that they’re paying attention and doing the right thing,” Perrine said. “Because it just takes one time — one person not paying attention that has life-changing consequences.”
Carmel police say they launched the technology hoping the software reduces risk, while still relying on drivers to do the right thing.
CPD says the technology cost about $23,000 and was paid for using money from the department’s seizure fund, not tax dollars.