'Operation Snap' - police want motorists' dashcam videos

[Mill Wheel]

I can't wait to see the first clown to submit a video, only to find that there is enough evidence of their own bad driving to merit a charge!

Also, can we submit video that shows pedestrians and cyclists behaving badly and see THEM prosecuted?

[hairyben]

Mill Wheel said:

I can't wait to see the first clown to submit a video, only to find that there is enough evidence of their own bad driving to merit a charge!

Also, can we submit video that shows pedestrians and cyclists behaving badly and see THEM prosecuted?

+1 to both.

Although driving standards have declined to such a degree with only specific offense cameras policing roads I wonder if we might not see a degree of improvement once people start to think theres a good chance they might have to answer for some of the idiocy they get up to.

[s3fella]

TBH if it catches a few of these muppets texting and facebooking whilst driving about, I am all for it.

[anonymous-user]

There should be a Goodwin equivalent for when people mention Nineteen Eighty-Four. Potential evidence gathering to be placed through a criminal justice system independent from the political establishment is so like a book describing a totalitarian state...

Anyway, this 'operation' may be a result of how many submissions they receive. The police are ultimately a public service and have to respond the types of demand placed upon them. The main purpose may be to pull all these submissions together under a more efficient process (e.g. they go to the same team, who apply the same standards and process in the same way etc) in which the net result is less time and fewer resources being used. It's to an uncommon thing to do when an increase in demand in a specific area is identified.

spookly said:

Would amateur dashcam footage be good enough to be used as evidence?

It would depend on how good it is.

[aww999]

I read about some poor sod on here a few months back who got the book thrown at him (9 points or so?) for safely overtaking some dashcam equipped numpty on a straight bit of clear road where a paintbrush-equipped council numpty had installed double white lines, for no apparent reason other than "overtaking's bad, ok?".

Laws might well be for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools, but if all those fools have dashcams and a pent-up desire to be Robocop, then what hope has the wise man?

[spookly]

La Liga said:

There should be a Goodwin equivalent for when people mention Nineteen Eighty-Four. Potential evidence gathering to be placed through a criminal justice system independent from the political establishment is so like a book describing a totalitarian state...

Anyway, this 'operation' may be a result of how many submissions they receive. The police are ultimately a public service and have to respond the types of demand placed upon them. The main purpose may be to pull all these submissions together under a more efficient process (e.g. they go to the same team, who apply the same standards and process in the same way etc) in which the net result is less time and fewer resources being used. It's to an uncommon thing to do when an increase in demand in a specific area is identified.

spookly said:

Would amateur dashcam footage be good enough to be used as evidence?

It would depend on how good it is.

I didn't mean 1984 as in surveillance, but as in the compulsion to support the state by grassing up every minor indiscretion of another citizen.

[Trabi601]

And so it begins.

I have had all kinds of accusations thrown at me at my suggestion that we were entering some kind of DDR-style surveillance, but doing so willingly, such was the enthusiasm for new technology and the desire to 'protect' ourselves.

This is exactly what I've been predicting would happen with all the amateur cameras being willingly installed in vehicles - just wait for the little bit of innocent looking legislation that will make them compulsory on all new vehicles complete with a clause that gives police free access to them.

It's the reason why hell will freeze over before I'd willingly put a dashcam in any of my vehicles.

[Bigends]

If footage is handed over the filmer may still be required in court to exhibit their video and the circumstances surrounding its being taken and handed over to Police and answer any discrepancies

[watchnut]

I think that the "evidence" would only be used where an accident or situation seen was far below what is expected from a "reasonable" driver. The boys and girls in blue do not have the man power/time to trawl through everyones "dash cam", so I wouldn't be too bothered about it all unless you drive like a tt and crash into some one and/or hurt someone

[InitialDave]

Dave Hedgehog said:

oh boy are they going to regret this

the adenoidal dash cam police will be submitting ten's of thousands of offences

Thanks to Snap... They've got the power.



Maybe it's all a massive feint to get the aforementioned fkers to just shut up, and everything submitted will be filed under B for Bin unless the police have a very good reason to believe it relates to an incident they're already interested in.

[rscott]

The quote from the police is quite carefully worded. It asks for video which supports their statements as a witness.
So anyone submitting a video has to be prepared to go to court as a witness and potentially face cross-examination, etc.
Might have been phrased that way to deter a video of the camera warriors.

[spaximus]

rscott said:

The quote from the police is quite carefully worded. It asks for video which supports their statements as a witness.
So anyone submitting a video has to be prepared to go to court as a witness and potentially face cross-examination, etc.
Might have been phrased that way to deter a video of the camera warriors.

It would be nice to think that but there has been pressure growing from some of the usual suspects where a dash camera user has filmed something they don't like. Perhpas they have the right ears to shout into.

At the moment it ends up on Youtube where it can be ignored but if there is an easy prosecution to be gained they will take it and use them to win.

More awareness courses, more fines etc. If the police want to stop phone users and texting drivers, just sit by the road side in any town or city and you will fill a court in a few hours.

[caelite]

No talent for it myself but I have a pal who is a BBC camera man by trade and is a wiz at video editing. Based on what ive seen of some of his home video work I dont think it would be too hard for someone with a bit of talent to doctor a few digits of a plate in a video.

[heebeegeetee]

Mill Wheel said:

I can't wait to see the first clown to submit a video, only to find that there is enough evidence of their own bad driving to merit a charge!

Also, can we submit video that shows pedestrians and cyclists behaving badly and see THEM prosecuted?

Sure, registration, licensing and insurance for pedestrians I say. They can do a lot of damage when they step out in front of a car.

[supermono]

I once had a dashcam weirdo film me. He'd been merrily hogging the outside lane for a while, I approached in lane one minding my own business and wafted past maybe 10 or so mph over the limit, a few seconds later he'd sped up presumably (harmlessly) speeding by maybe 20mph to gain on me, and pulled up alongside, pointing his dashcam at me.

All very surreal, but I suppose it must have amused him at some level. Would have been marvellous if he'd rocked up at the police station with his evidence.

[williamp]

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/n...

He tried it last time in 2014. Still, the innocent have nothing to fear etc etc

[Guybrush]

s3fella said:

TBH if it catches a few of these muppets texting and facebooking whilst driving about, I am all for it.

If ever increasing surveillance and spying on each other is encouraged, then if a few people texting and facebooking while driving about are missed, then I'm all for discouraging it.

[Guybrush]

supermono said:

I once had a dashcam weirdo film me. He'd been merrily hogging the outside lane for a while, I approached in lane one minding my own business and wafted past maybe 10 or so mph over the limit, a few seconds later he'd sped up presumably (harmlessly) speeding by maybe 20mph to gain on me, and pulled up alongside, pointing his dashcam at me.

All very surreal, but I suppose it must have amused him at some level. Would have been marvellous if he'd rocked up at the police station with his evidence.

I expect, like many sad people, he was trying to engineer a situation where he could claim to be the righteous one in probably the only place in his life where he feels some power.

[bigandclever]

williamp said:

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/n...

He tried it last time in 2014. Still, the innocent have nothing to fear etc etc

That's very different. That's the police operating HGV cabs to record misdemeanours which, while I consider it cheating, is different from me and you filming stuff and sending it in to You've Been Framed Grassed Up..

[Mr Snrub]

Guybrush said:

s3fella said:

TBH if it catches a few of these muppets texting and facebooking whilst driving about, I am all for it.

If ever increasing surveillance and spying on each other is encouraged, then if a few people texting and facebooking while driving about are missed, then I'm all for discouraging it.

But now our roads are such that people know they can effectively do things with impunity as long as they aren't speeding. This is one of the only things that might make people think twice because they might get caught. Like the driver I saw yesterday in a marked BT van with no seatbelt too busy texting to look where he was going.