Police in Britain have developed a device that will alert police if you are using a phone while driving. The device will shine a message at the driver telling them to stop using their mobile phone, but the device can’t tell if it is a driver or passenger using the phone. Here, when you’re using a smartphone while driving is an offence, would probably alert the officer to the fact that someone in your car is using a phone.

British police say the technology will not be used as an “enforcement tool”, but was instead aimed at educating motorists and identifying offending “hotspots”.

The detector picks up 2G, 3G and 4G signals and will, therefore, flash to alert people in cars who are using phones to call, text or data.

If people are using a Bluetooth hands-free device, the detector will recognize this and not flash.

The technology cannot distinguish if a passenger or a driver of a vehicle is using a phone and so the sign will be activated regardless of who is using the mobile.

The forces say the two detectors, which cost $11,000 Canadian.

Police say the system is “not fool-proof”, but added the police needed to “make it as socially unacceptable to use your mobile whilst driving as it is to drink and drive”.

In Britain, a driver was four times more likely to crash if they were using a phone and twice as likely to be involved in a fatal collision when texting compared with drink-driving.

When you think about it, the thought that police could easily detect is you are using your phone and not connected to the Bluetooth system in your car, would put distracted driving in the same enforcement camp as speeding and radar. Reporting for Computer Insider, I’m Bob Pritchard