"Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern," the senators said in their letter to executives at , and RIM.

Joe Scott, the CEO of PhantomALERT, the only app cited by name in the senators' letter, confirmed that RIM had pulled his program.

"It was recently brought to RIM's attention that the PhantomALERT application for BlackBerry raises public safety concerns, specifically around the functionality that allows an end user to avoid police checkpoints set up to catch drivers under the influence," read an e-mail from RIM that Scott shared with Computerworld. "In response to this concern, RIM has removed the application from BlackBerry App World."

Apple and Google have not answered Computerworld's requests for comment.

RIM did not respond to further questions today, including how many apps it has yanked, and their titles.