How does Trapster work?

When you see a trap, report it by pressing a button on your phone, or calling a toll free number. Other user's phones will alert them as they approach the trap. Trapster learns the credibility of traps based on how many users agree. It also learns the credibility of each user, over time.

Click Here to watch a demo video of Trapster

So how does it work? Our goal is to make it so simple that you don't need to know. But in case you are interested, it combines technologies such as GPS and wireless location, voice transcription, geocoding, reverse geocoding, and SMS, with a central database server. It communicates in real time, using the Internet.

What types of mobile phones does Trapster support?

* iPhone
* BlackBerry
* Android (the TMobile G1 and others)
* Nokia N95, N96, N97, 5800, E71, and other Symbian s60 phones
* Palm WebOS phones such as Pre and Pixi
* Windows Mobile touch screen phones with 6.0, 6.1, or 6.5 OS and GPS
* Unlocked J2ME phones with GPS (for example the Sprint Samsung Instinct)

If you don't have one of these phones you can still get text message alerts with maps on any phone that supports text messaging, and report traps that you see using our 1-800 tip line.

Why is Trapster free? How does your company make money?

Our question is "how could Trapster be not free?". Many Web sites ask users to contribute speed trap, speed camera, red light camera, and similar information. But then they charge those same users $10 a month or more to get that same data back out. We don't think that's fair. That's why Trapster is free to individual users for private use. Our software collects anonymous traffic data and also of course speed trap data. We feel that data will become very valuable to navigation device companies. We will also eventually offer a paid premium version of our software, and place advertisements on our Web site and in mobile applications. We intend to always offer a free version of our products as we do now.

Do you sell or give out my private information such as my email address?

Of course not. We would never do that, and we have never done anything like that. Read the Privacy Policy

Why you need trapster even if you already have a radar detector.

Even the latest, most expensive radar detectors are useless against modern police enforcement technologies such as instant-on radar and laser. Your radar/laser detector will still beep, but in almost all cases, only after it is too late. VASCAR, another common enforcement method, emits no signal at all so a detector can never help. The only way a radar or laser detector can help you is if it beeps in time for you to slow down before the officer gets a reading on your speed. With instant-on and laser, this only happens if the officer activates early or "misses" the shot, and some of the signal leaks past a car in front of you (a very unlikely scenario). Radar detectors are still effective for older radar enforcement methods, which are mostly used in smaller towns in remote areas. We recommend that you use both Trapster and a radar/laser detector for the best possible coverage. Also radar detectors are illegal in some countries and some US states, and are illegal nationwide in the US for commercial vehicles. Our understanding, corroborated by national law enforcement organizations, is that Trapster is legal in all 50 US states. You should check your local and state laws to be sure.

A map of speed traps on a Web site will NOT help you avoid a ticket.

Police are not stupid. They change the locations where they set up speed traps many times per day. Only real time data is useful. Trapster data is real time data. Speed traps entered by other users are distributed immediately.

Speed trap location data is only useful if you can actually use it. You can't just look on a map and memorize all the trap locations. Trapster continuously communicates with your mobile phone. Data is never stale. And it's FREE.

Trapster works on Garmin and TomTom.

After about a gazillion of you (our users) asked for Garmin and TomTom support, we implemented it! While other sites charge money for this data, we offer it absolutely free (for personal use by individual registered users). Check out our innovative approach to setting areas, routes, and alert types of interest, and for POI Mailer automated notifications! Note: Static trap types such as red light cameras and known police enforcement points stay in the same place for years. But real time trap types such as the motorcycle police with laser, a mobile speed van, or a checkpoint, move from place to place every few hours. Garmin and TomTom navigation devices are not connected, so our servers cannot deliver real time data to them. Therefore we suggest you additionally use our location based text message system to be alerted to the trap types that are not static in nature.

Don't I need a bunch of users in my area before Trapster is effective?

No. Obviously the more users in your area, the better, but you only need a few active users in your area for Trapster live police reports to be effective. For example, if you can get even a handful of your co-workers to sign up, it is very likely that at least one of you will spot the traps near your place of business on the way to or from work. And why not? It's FREE!

Could pranksters or police trick the system?

Of course. People can game eBay rankings or Google search ranks too, and they do. The algorithms are still useful and effective for the majority of users, the majority of the time. As far as officers - they are way too busy to go to all that trouble. In fact we have many users who are officers, several who we know personally here in San Diego. They don't want a $480 red light camera ticket either.

Is Trapster legal?

Our understanding is that Trapster is legal in most countries. It does not fall under text messaging or hands free calling laws, or radar detector laws. If you are concerned you should probably check the laws in your state or country. In fact, the police we've spoken with actually like the idea. It beeps, people slow down, they have met their objective, you save money on the ticket and insurance, and everyone is happy. The police can always find plenty of other people to issue violations to. People who don't use Trapster, that is.

Here are some actual quotes from the police:

"If someone slows down because of (Trapster), it's accomplishing the same goal of trying to get people to obey the speed limit"
- Bill Johnson - Executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations

"Having (motorists) slow down on their own is a lot less manpower-intensive than having us forced to spend time writing tickets. Whether they slow down because their friend told them to slow down (by using Trapster) or a ticket, the net effect is the same: They've slowed down."
- Sgt. Brent Barbee, Amarillo Police

"It's not hurting our job for public safety. When they put that stuff out there, they slow down at that spot we are at. It is actually helping with public safety."
- Gabriel Medrano, Texas Dept. of Public Safety

You can get more information on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Notes:
Visit the links on the home page to get information about how to sign up and get Trapster on your mobile phone. We hope you decide to join our community! Please feel free to contact us for help.