Free dashcams issued by police for Operation Snap

[Unreal]

croyde said:

andrebar said:

Not sure, but assuming you plead not guilty the prosecution might be scuppered if the footage provider isn’t willing to turn up as a witness.

Could be a gamble worth taking. No one wants to waste a day in court.

But on the other hand, these tts might relish it

Mikey might but my strong belief is that most of these people are spineless low lifes. You only have to look at the volume of 'report them!' posts on social media from 'anonymous users'.

I don't have an issue when it's a fair cop and my driving has been assessed by professionals. I've attended a SAC and received points in the past without complaint. However, I'd have my day in court if I was being asked to accept a fixed penalty based on some selective video sent to the Police by a fecking Walt and I would want them to know that I knew who they were.

[Alex_225]

This is good and bad.

I have a dashcam and it's there as an impartial witness, there are so many dishonest cretins out there it's good to have.

But, there are so many people for whom a dashcam gives them some type of authority and many seem completely switched off to the fact they're terrible at driving. The clear indicator of this is seeing a dashcam right in the centre of the windscreen, blocking their view.

Also I can imagine some dashcammers initiating an issue, then acting the innocent and submitting footage of just the reaction.

As a witness to a genuine incident great, as witness to someone's dislike of someone else's driving including a genuine mistake, not so good.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Unreal said:

Quickmoose said:

I had a NIP from a helmet cam, worn by a horse rider, who was stationary at the exit of a blind bend. All part of a similar operation here in the SW.
I came round that bend within the speed limit but was obviously concerned to see a horse stood there, so took avoiding action, to give space and slowed down, which sadly made the exhaust pop a bit
On my way back they had gone, but I received the NiP, drove the road again at the same time of day and filmed it showing where the sun would've been (behind the horse) and stated that given the fact I didn't know they were there I did a pretty decent job of it all.... noting that you should pass a horse at 10mph, I did add that I can't enter every bend at 10mph just in case, because that'd make me a risk to any traffic following on from behind..
I also added sincere apologies for the upset caused by my unmodified car's noise.
Case was closed.
It does appear that the human element of law enforcement is being replaced by film...

What was the alleged offence out of interest and was the rider named?

alleged offence? driving it seems.

[119]

Brilliant idea, and its a shame its not offered in more counties.

We have had a couple of news articles with people being prosecuted from witness DC footage.

[768]

123DWA said:

Timberwolf said:

I expect an uptick in cloned plates, obscured plates, the classic "keep it on the dash and flip it down while on the move" and of course just riding around without any numberplate at all as... well, who's going to catch you? Although "expect" is not quite the right word given enforcement purely via camera (public or otherwise) has been the norm for a while and therefore all of these already happen regularly.

I have been saying this for a while. You only have to drive around the ULEZ zone to see quite a few vans with a corner snapped off the number plate so the first or last character cant be read or up on the dash with paper covering half of it. I don't think your man in the street would run cloned plates but I do think people would try obscuring their plates.

It's not exactly Newton's Third Law, but these things tend to have consequences.

Hopefully it's just pilot in Hull and another sign that DfT's budget is excessive and can be cut.

[Gericho]

Following on from https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Now instead of driving half the speed liimt, we're going to match the speed of a pedestrian. 20mph? Pfft. Let's try 10mph, some random brake checking, and other wonderful things so I can post videos to the cops and get a pat on the head or maybe even a blowie if I'm lucky.

Some things are worth saving but, like this country, once you're past the tipping point you might as well enjoy watching the suffering.

[Countdown]

Baldchap said:

I'd imagine they can't prosecute for speed related offences due to a lack of calibrated equipment, but prosecuting more antisocial or dangerous driving can't be a bad thing surely?

You wouldn't have thought so. However people don't tend to recognise how crap their own driving is. Or maybe they do and that's why there's so much hatred of dashcammers.....

[swisstoni]

I’m all for this IF it is administered fairly.
When I first started driving as a teenager in east London, it seemed like the police were bloody everywhere. I’d get pulled up for all sorts of st.

But it taught me to ‘watch it’. And I did need to learn that lesson.

So if this sort of initiative combats the feeling of impunity that many feel allows them to get away with anything on today’s roads, then great.

[Unreal]

I wonder how many people will submit footage of their own bad driving to the Police.

After all, if it's dodgy it should be reported and the Police should make a decision to prosecute? Or can we safely predict that no-one with a dashcam will ever do something wrong when driving? Place your bets.

Edited by Unreal on Thursday 28th March 19:35

[coppice]

Quite . There does seem to be an air of hysteria - many seem convinced that they are beset by homicidal drivers on every trip to the shops , many of us apparently are so scared we have cameras on our front doors and every time we see anything unusual happen our first reaction is to film it .

What a spineless and paranoid bunch of snitches we have turned into .

[e-honda]

It is very strange what is considered aggressive driving.

If someone was dawdling in front of you on the pavement and you briskly walked past them stepping into the road that would be perceived as someone in a mild hurry.
If you jogged past them it would be considered someone in a real hurry, or someone out for a jog.
It never crosses anyone's mind that the behavior is in anyway directed towards them.

But pass someone's car and it is all about them, it's an act of aggression just to overtake someone.