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It's interesting that he did this to stop people from using phones while driving, but he ended up creating a bigger public safety hazard by jamming emergency comms. From a liability perspective if that jammer had blocked a 911 call during a nearby accident his exposure would have been far higher than just the $48k FCC fine. Federal preemption on signal jamming is one of the few areas where the hammer drops consistently hard.

This is 12 years old…

He was incredibly lucky. Assuming there was no other criminal penalties, he screwed up royally and gets off with a fine he will be able to pay and a life that was not destroyed by the federal government.

The police who stopped him had their radios jammed during the interaction; so I'm not particularly sympathetic to the title's artificial framing:

> Fined $48k for using a jammer to keep commuters from using phones while driving

The person jammed 911, both on and off the freeway every single work-day for months. They also jammed legal usage of mobile devices on the freeway and in the surrounding area. They were rightfully fined, and if it discourages others then so much the better.

We have standards, called laws, for how we use shared resources. The fine is about $60/day. Feels low to me to be honest. The actions described could have easily contributed to death via disruption of emergency services.

Maybe $48k is a bit much, but this is so obviously a crazy thing to do.

Passengers are allowed to use their phones and your jammer won't discriminate. People can take hands-free calls and your jammer won't discriminate. Pedestrians can use their phones and your jammer won't discriminate. People who have broken down might want to call the AA. And so on.

What was this person thinking?

Wouldn't issues with cellphone network make drivers even more likely to get distracted from the road?

I'm talking about in practice, not the theoretic world where no driver ever uses their phone.

A day after reading this, I keep thinking about this article.

I wonder if Humphreys had rigged up something that faded out the interference, and then used it when pulled over, if he could have "played dumb" enough to not get his vehicle searched? IE, if the interference "faded out" instead of abruptly turning off, would the FCC agents have suspected they got the wrong vehicle?

Likewise, if Humphreys had hidden the interference device well enough, such as inside the dashboard, could it have remained undiscovered during a search?

Or, did the FCC agents collect evidence in such a way that they would know to take the car apart?

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One trend that I've seen in cases against cell phone jammers is that the criminals often appear unsavvy; IE, they don't realize what they're doing is a crime, so they don't take precautions in case they're caught. (But that doesn't excuse their behavior.)

> Adopted: April 23, 2014 Released: April 29, 2014

Well, here's another fun one I guess, where a trucker wanted to disrupt his log keeper but ended up interfering with an airport: https://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2013/FCC-13-106A1.html

He got off way too light.

In a way it doesn't surprise me one bit. In a world in which everybody is told they're important you get people who actually believe that they are more important than others to a degree they start seeing them as NPCs. And you don't actually care about NPCs getting inconvenienced or even killed as long as you are marginally safer yourself. I've seen someone wearing a t-shirt that said 'I'm a big deal'. I kid you not.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

well, it's illegal to use jammers, so.

Florida man interferes with essential services and puts people's lives in danger. Sounds like a good reason for a hefty fine.

If this person had not continuously operated the jammer along the same route, at the same time every day for years, they probably wouldn't have ever been caught.

This happened to me driving down interstate 95. I tried calling the FCC, the highway patrol, and every single entity I tried to get a hold of was like "this is not something we can really do anything about". Seriously, how do you even report something like this and get attention on it?

Should get some jailtime or he will do it again

2014

I of course agree with him being guilty, but cars should be prohibited from allowing loud speakers. Also, independently, phones should be prohibited from using speakers at all when in the vicinity of several other phones.

...sounds about right? Is this supposed to be an injustice? You can't unilaterally shut down a public resource like RF sectiona because you've decided to be the Batman clearing the streets of hands-free cellphone users.

this is from 12 years ago!

Good.

I spend time in the "third world" where they honk all the time and don't care about road laws (i.e. lane lines are merely suggestions, no requirement to buckle your seat belt), non existent road law enforcement.

It's amazing. Every type of vehicle shares the road in relative harmony. It's the ultimate "mixed use/complete streets" liberal wet dream of transportation infrastructure. It maximizes the utility of the roads. There's also far fewer lifted trucks and similar which harms the visibility of the highly alert drivers.

Everyone is still on their phones, but because they are used to a far more chaotic roads, they pay FAR better attention. Furthermore, the average health is infinitely better (almost no obesity), so even their 80 year old grandmas are far healthier and thus more fit to drive.

Unironically deregulate the roads. We need to radically increase speed limits, significantly reduce penalties for meme stuff "i.e. california stopping at stop signs", and yes go after "do-gooders" who think that risking jamming ambulances is worth getting their "slightly safer roads"

Unironically, put Tullock's spike in every car.

Traffic cops are road marauders/parasites. Many tickets shouldn't exist. And no, I don't have any driving tickets.

Hero. So tired of seeing drivers swerve around at deadly speeds on the highway while they play around on their phones. I would contribute to a Gofundme to help this guy pay off the $48k.

This may be the epitome of chaotic-good in the modern world