Private Dashcam footage to be used by Welsh Police to prosecute

[Richie]

A pilot initiative in a part of Wales allowed the public to submit Dashcam footage to the police who could then use the footage to start a prosecution case. This is now being extended to all of Wales -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40996609

I have watched a fair bit of Dashcam footage and, although there are some people that are completely ridiculous in their driving, you sometimes find the dashcammers invoke a situation (or at least don't help in avoiding it) in order to have a piece of footage they can upload to YouTube...

My opinion - yes, use it if a crash has occured but not for just general errors in driving which EVERYONE has done at least once... All this will cause is a form of vigilantism...

 

[Cleisthenes]

A good idea on the whole but I do agree that there will be numpties uploading all sorts

 

[sovietspybob]

as long as it'll only be used for blatantly dangerous driving and not just someone getting a bit confused at a roundabout or wandering over a while line.

 

[Dav4]

It's ridiculous. Your going to have jobsworths going overboard with this now there will be no need for the traffic Police as they are getting other people to do there work for them with this idea.
I had a dashcam warrior record me a while back because I overtook him on a 50 road. Funny thing is he started accelerating when he seen me begin the overtake then didn't like it when I still got past easily so he proceeded to drive up my bum to the lights and pressed the button on his dashcam and then got a pen and paper out of his glovebox to take my reg
It won't be long before every car has to have a camera for insurance purposes I think. We will be driving round like robots too scared to do 32 in a 30

 

[Rroff]

Seen quite a few instances as well where the person with the dashcam has only uploaded the bit that makes the other person look bad and omitted the full context.

In general though I'm not against some kind of collation and ANPR, etc. of footage if someone is appearing a lot then it is probably something that should be looked into and possibly prosecution.

 

[Skillmister]

Wonder if they'll bring out a feature so you can search your own number plate so I can watch myself scream past 40mph warriors on NSL straights

 

[MichaelAwkward]

How much will this cost in terms of hosting, processing, and how much actual policing could that money pay for instead?

No doubt they'll be inundated by clips from people who feel they've been wronged by a perfectly legal overtake etc.

 

[Housey]

Again, Police hitting the easy spreadsheet numbers....

As was expected, more cameras = more people getting big brother watched, more Hyacinth & Ernie with NOTHING in their lives, trawling British roads for people overtaking them or travelling too quickly for them. Look I have no issue with the Police nailing drunk drivers, no paperwork, banned drivers, but what's the point if they get a fine and are out doing the same next week? Three hits and your out or GTFO is my view. I am tired of easy target policing which more often than not will hit the once a lifetime offender when the scum carries on being scum.

When they start putting a bullet through the head of the chav with 500 offences caught drunk driving for the 15th time I will support this initiative. Until then GTFO and focus on real crime.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Surely they are going to be overwhelmed with constant footage of minor incidents? Even the 'compilation videos' of the highlights are often filled with minor issues..

 

[grudas]

They won't have the man power to process it. The number of people that are full on dash cam warriors is crazy. They often cause the NC situation themselves, just look at any UK cam compilation.

 

[Howard]

Indeed. It’s not like we live in Russia where every dashcam moment is a spectacular accident. It’s mostly just people getting het up because someone pulled out from their left as they approached a roundabout and they then sped up to make it look convincing on camera. The police won’t want to know about that, and that’s the sort of footage they’d get in vast quantities.

 

[Housey]

Surely they are going to be overwhelmed with constant footage of minor incidents? Even the 'compilation videos' of the highlights are often filled with minor issues..

It's a press piece to drive behaviour in those who will be affected. The law abiding, but those who cause all the crap will just carry on as normal. I'd love to see a press article on how the Police will get a new law that after 5 stops for law breaking the person will get locked up or tagged, after 10 jailed for life. That would be good policing but yet again we get watered down crappy policing for the medias consumption.

 

[Murf]

So they're an a pilot. They're obviously happy with the results and have decided to expand it. I don't see the problem. All the issues you guys are envisaging I presume they've already dealt with during the pilot and they're happy with the trade offs.

 

[Richie]

You may be right Murf but a smaller localised initiative is different from a Country wide one with respect to the volume of submissions...

 

[Hades]

It's 1984 folks. Report your neighbour...

 

[Minstadave]

Surely they are going to be overwhelmed with constant footage of minor incidents? Even the 'compilation videos' of the highlights are often filled with minor issues..

They can start their own YouTube channel, earn a few pennies.

 

[Steeps]

Looks like they are going to reject any edited footage, give the whole video with the incident or none at all. Should stop those trying to provoke incidents.

Footage has to be unedited and include the whole journey, not just the incident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40998946

No. You MUST preserve the original recording in its original state. Do not edit it or alter it in any way. Just keep it. If it’s on a memory card put it to one side and keep it safe. This is the original footage and it may be needed in the future. This is your evidence and your responsibility. We may have a need to see your complete journey or more footage either side of the matters you are reporting.

https://www.north-wales.police.uk/advice-and-support/safer-roads/operation-snap

 

[Mal X]

the problem is there will be so many video clips sent to the police of minor rubbish, that they'll have no time to look at it all............
but what is scary is we're becoming like George Orwell's 1984...........mass surveillance, we no longer live in a healthy democracy, but something very sinister !

the government is trying to control the way you live and the way you should think, it's no longer about PC and racial integration, it's expanding into everything...........what you should eat, what you should be drinking, how much exercise you should do, it's no longer a ``nanny state``, it's becoming intrusive and sinister.............Big Brother is definitely watching you

it looks like in about 10 years time, that our country will be a Police State.

 

[Amp34]

It'll take what? All of a minute or two to review each piece of footage for a first pass (including loading up the video). It's not like someone is going to have to physically watch every single clip in real time.

If the quick speed through reveals something that may indeed look dodgy (such as someone doing an incredibly dangerous overtake, for example the photo in the BBC article) then they can move it on to the next tier to look at in more detail.

At a guess just one person could look at several hundred a day and perhaps flag a dozen or two for further inspection.

 

[Steeps]

How many when filling in the form will want to continue to submit their video knowing that around 12 minutes (based on older cam video lengths) of their driving will also be studied to see if the situation was provoked in some way. One of the videos on the BBC site (24sec) showed a van overtaking another van and a car on the pavement, but when it flicks to the front camera view there is NOTHING in front of the car to stop it making progress, so why has it stopped on double yellows?