Police in the state of New York may soon have a high-tech way of catching drivers that text while driving, by means of using a device called “textalyzer”. The device allows an officer to quickly check if a phone has been in use before a crash.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday directed the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to examine the technology, as well as the questions about privacy and civil liberties its use would raise.

“Despite laws to ban cellphone use while driving, some motorists still continue to insist on texting behind the wheel, placing themselves and others at substantial risk,” Cuomo said in a statement first reported by The Associated Press. “This review will examine the effectiveness of using this new emerging technology to crack down on this reckless behavior and thoroughly evaluate its implications to ensure we protect the safety and privacy of New Yorkers.”

The device is called the “textalyzer” because of its similarity to the breathalyzer, which is used to identify drunk drivers. Once plugged into a person’s phone for about a minute, it will indicate whether a motorist was texting, emailing, surfing the web or otherwise using his or her cellphone before a serious crash. The textalyzer would not access actual information on the phone, such as pictures, personal emails or web browsing history.

This new technology is still some months away from being ready, according to Cellebrite, the Israel-based tech company behind the device.

Digital privacy and civil liberties groups already have questioned whether the technology’s use would violate personal privacy, noting that police can already obtain search warrants if they believe information on a private phone could be useful in a prosecution.

Many security experts are skeptical when it comes to promises that the textalyzer would only access information about phone usage, and not personal material, according to Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for civil liberties when it comes to digital technology.

“I am extremely nervous about handing a cellphone to a law enforcement officer and allowing them in any way to forensically analyze it,” she said. “This is a technology that is incredibly problematic and at the same time is unnecessary. There are already legal avenues for a police officer.”

Westchester County resident Ben Lieberman lost his 19-year-old son Evan to a fatal car crash in 2011 and later discovered the driver of the car his son was in had been texting while driving. He’s now a leading advocate for the textalyzer and has worked with Cellebrite on the project. He said he understands concerns about personal privacy but that they’re unfounded, noting that the device would only tell police whether a driver had been breaking the law.

“A breathalyzer doesn’t tell you where you were drinking or whether it was vodka or Jack Daniels, just that you were drinking,” he said. “This is the right balance between public safety and privacy.”

The committee will hear from supporters and opponents of the technology, law enforcement officials and legal experts before issuing a report, Cuomo’s office said. Particular areas of focus will include the effectiveness of the technology, constitutional and legal issues as well as how the device would be used in practice.

Senator Terrence Murphy, a Westchester County Republican, sponsored legislation this year that would have set out rules for the use of the textalyzer. The bill didn’t get a full vote, but Murphy said he believes it’s only a matter of time before New York and other states adopt the technology.

“It’s not if, it’s when,” he said. “This will literally save lives.”

Under Murphy’s bill, a motorist who refuses to hand over their phone to an officer could have their license suspended.

Twelve people were killed and 2,784 were injured in cellphone-related crashes in New York state from 2011 to 2015, according to figures from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research. State statistics show 1.2 million tickets for cellphone violations were issued in that same time period.

(Source: AP)