ALBANY, N.Y.  — Police in New York state may soon have a high-tech way of catching texting drivers: a device known as a “textalyzer” that allows an officer to quickly check if a phone has been in use before a crash.

Democratic Gov. 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.

The “textalyzer” is still some months away from being ready, according to Cellebrite, the Israel-based tech company developing 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 handling 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.”