GoDaddy has shut down a new Tempe, Arizona based website that was created to keep an eye on the city’s police and their behavior.

RateMyCop.com, launched by Timothy Lee and Jim Lippard, was created as a citizen watchdog site that would let citizens report on experiences they had with various police officers in Tempe (coincidentally, home of Arizona State University).

The Tempe police department staunchly opposed the website. “If everybody went home everyday and you had the whole world ranking your job, we do make mistakes, but other days we do great things,” said a Tempe police officer.

The counter to this argument is that the people on the site could report positive experiences, as well as the idea that any group paid by public funds to defend our safety should be subjected to a greater amount of scrutiny due to the power they wield. The ability to imprison, harm, or kill a citizen is a massive responsibility, and one that requires oversight by taxpayers.

The day after this story broke, GoDaddy shut the site down, at first claiming “suspicious activity” and then claiming they went over their 3 terabyte bandwidth limit.

Thanks to Mark Hopkins at Mashable for the info.

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