Dashcam - Asking for trouble?

Dashcam - Asking for trouble?

Author
Discussion

ModernAndy

2,094 posts

134 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
tapereel said:
ModernAndy said:
esxste said:
ModernAndy said:
Can you get a dashcam that doesn't record speed or at least has a setting where you can turn this feature completely off? I ask not because I plan on setting fire to the road but because up here in Scotland there's a lot of talk about prosecuting anything above the speed limit so showing 72mph on the motorway could technically be a risk.
Speed can be worked out from the footage. Simple calculation of distance over time to get speed. While this wouldn't be accurate enough for +2 mph over 70 - it would be enough to prosecute 100+.
well, I'm no Stephen Hawking but I am aware of that smile

I've yet to fit a dash cam but am seriously considering it. As above, my issue is some over-zealous copper taking issue if I hit, for the sake of argument, 75mph on a 70mph road. I'd go with one that doesn't record speed (even in the background) if I do fit one.
Whatever video camera you fit will produce a series of images that will yield the speed at which the camera is being carried.
Indeed.

Trabi601

4,865 posts

94 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
I'm with the Germans and Austrians on dashcams.

Invasion of privacy - should be banned.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Short Grain said:
1878 said:
untakenname said:
Some Amberella chipset dashcams can be changed so that the gps speed can be set to mph but have kph shown on the osd so if you're doing 100mph it shows you as doing 60 instead.

Edited by untakenname on Friday 28th October 13:28
But 100mph is 160 kph or am I just inviting a parrot?
That's how I read it as well! Waiting for a parrot now as long as it only Whooshes up to the speed limit!
The suggestion was, I presume, that it shows the speed in mph, but puts kph at the end.

So you're doing 100mph, but it reads 100kph on screen, which is really 60mph. Because, obviously, the difference won't be easy to twig by anybody watching the video.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Trabi601 said:
I'm with the Germans and Austrians on dashcams.

Invasion of privacy - should be banned.
That's not what German law says.
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/the-problem-with-das...

Trabi601

4,865 posts

94 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Trabi601 said:
I'm with the Germans and Austrians on dashcams.

Invasion of privacy - should be banned.
That's not what German law says.
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/the-problem-with-das...
It's a weird technicality - you can have a dashcam, but can't do anything with the recordings. Very odd, but essentially it renders dashcams as useless.

Ken Figenus

5,678 posts

116 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Police can seize anyone's equipment and media if the suspect them of being a terrorist.

If the footage was 3d party journalistic in nature they can seize and or view your media (usually together with your camera) but only with a court order. I would never give them my camera but I would always provide footage - most of them are fine with that. In fact they took an accredited pro press mate's drone recently (after crashing it) and I know the out of court settlement for that eek

You dashcam however is i'm afraid totally fair game if they suspect YOU of being part of an offence or part of their investigation. And don't think for a second that a sneaky format would wipe it clean at all! You'd need to chew and swallow the card Mr Bond!





Lgfst

391 posts

108 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.

Bigends

5,412 posts

127 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Ken Figenus said:
Police can seize anyone's equipment and media if the suspect them of being a terrorist.

If the footage was 3d party journalistic in nature they can seize and or view your media (usually together with your camera) but only with a court order. I would never give them my camera but I would always provide footage - most of them are fine with that. In fact they took an accredited pro press mate's drone recently (after crashing it) and I know the out of court settlement for that eek

You dashcam however is i'm afraid totally fair game if they suspect YOU of being part of an offence or part of their investigation. And don't think for a second that a sneaky format would wipe it clean at all! You'd need to chew and swallow the card Mr Bond!

Surely a dashcam is just another camera why isnt it subject of the same seizure rules as my hand held DSLR if i'm out snapping or videoing in public?

Ken Figenus

5,678 posts

116 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Bigends said:
Surely a dashcam is just another camera why isnt it subject of the same seizure rules as my hand held DSLR if i'm out snapping or videoing in public?
I think it is - sorry if that was unclear - its just another camera!

ModernAndy

2,094 posts

134 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Lgfst said:
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.
Would it not be better to have a decoy SD card on standby and just swap them and hide the incriminating one?

Bigends

5,412 posts

127 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
ModernAndy said:
Lgfst said:
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.
Would it not be better to have a decoy SD card on standby and just swap them and hide the incriminating one?
Exactly - only a couple of seconds to pop a knackered one in

S0updr4g0n

146 posts

110 months

Friday 28th October 2016
quotequote all
Lgfst said:
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.
Having worked in the field, if you believe formatting an SD card, or even continuously using one and overwriting, will destroy all evidence, you are sadly mistaken... it's easily retrievable.

youngsyr

14,742 posts

191 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
Bigends said:
ModernAndy said:
Lgfst said:
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.
Would it not be better to have a decoy SD card on standby and just swap them and hide the incriminating one?
Exactly - only a couple of seconds to pop a knackered one in
I wonder where this would stand with perverting the course of justice (an offence which can carry prison time).

ModernAndy

2,094 posts

134 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
youngsyr said:
Bigends said:
ModernAndy said:
Lgfst said:
For me the benefit of having a camera should anything happen far outweighs anything else. I have a 64GB card so it covers the car when parked for a while. But just to clarify, I don't do anything stupid these days and just plod along.

My camera doesn't display the date/time/speed on the recording but it does save the GPS data on the file, so running the file through something like registry edit shows all time and speed data with location.

With a biker, there is no way to delete the footage 'on the go' or remove the SD card (as it's on your helmet usually). Thinking about a camera in a car, the SD card could be removed in a second then disposed of or if I think about mine, all I'd have to do is stop recording, menu, down 4 times and that is format SD card, confirm, blank SD card.
Would it not be better to have a decoy SD card on standby and just swap them and hide the incriminating one?
Exactly - only a couple of seconds to pop a knackered one in
I wonder where this would stand with perverting the course of justice (an offence which can carry prison time).
Either option could be PCOJ but if you put a duff SD card in then they can check all they want for the files they think you've wiped and they won't find them. There's risk in doing anything to cover up a crime I suppose but in this case I'd suggest it's minimal and using a different SD card that's never been formatted would make it very difficult to detect any wrongdoing, you could just say there must have been a fault and nothing has ever been recorded due to this issue.

benjijames28

1,702 posts

91 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
I've been thinking about getting one, but I can't stand the thought it might make me turn into one of these 's you see on YouTube blasting their horn at every little mistake other people might make, just to get some content for YouTube.

As for people saying it makes them drive safer, what makes me drive safer is the doubling of my insurance prices n the last year despite me now having 4 years no claims and 4 years driving, 27yr old and paying a grand a year. 450 last year albeit in a less powerful car.

fk people who get a camera and think they are some kind of traffic cop, and the camera will protect them.

ging84

8,829 posts

145 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
tapereel said:
- Can the Police seize dash cam footage if suspected speeding?
They can seize any dashcam footage if they suspect it may assist in the detection of a crime.

- In the event of an accident, is all the footage shown/analysed or can you only show short series of the events leading up to the crash and the incident itself?
If you want to use video footage then edited clips will not be admissible and any opposing parties will demand contiguous video records if you want to have material admitted.

- Are any of the cams encrypted so only you can access the footage?
See answer above; you will need to decrypt all of the material not just clips convenient to your part of the case.

HEre are some samples of dashcam/video evidence that has been seized and used in evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFB05gZ5JQM

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2016/july/biker...

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/24/biker-caught-speedin...

http://www.driving.co.uk/news/fast-footage-why-pol...

http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/video-police-r...

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

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news...

http://www.wrexham.com/news/video-driver-sentenced...

Asking for trouble? Yer' Darn Tootin'
From what i can tell none of those were seized at the roadside
With the exception of the biker group, who's cameras were recovered after they ditched them, all the others seem to relate to footage posted online.

carinaman

21,224 posts

171 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
That video was seized at the scene of the fatality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn7R3RScL28

V8LM

5,166 posts

208 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
S0updr4g0n said:
Having worked in the field, if you believe formatting an SD card, or even continuously using one and overwriting, will destroy all evidence, you are sadly mistaken... it's easily retrievable.
Recovering from a simply formatted card yes, but how from one that's been overwritten? The amount of information stored on the card is fixed.

tapereel

1,860 posts

115 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
ging84 said:
tapereel said:
- Can the Police seize dash cam footage if suspected speeding?
They can seize any dashcam footage if they suspect it may assist in the detection of a crime.

- In the event of an accident, is all the footage shown/analysed or can you only show short series of the events leading up to the crash and the incident itself?
If you want to use video footage then edited clips will not be admissible and any opposing parties will demand contiguous video records if you want to have material admitted.

- Are any of the cams encrypted so only you can access the footage?
See answer above; you will need to decrypt all of the material not just clips convenient to your part of the case.

HEre are some samples of dashcam/video evidence that has been seized and used in evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFB05gZ5JQM

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2016/july/biker...

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/24/biker-caught-speedin...

http://www.driving.co.uk/news/fast-footage-why-pol...

http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/video-police-r...

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

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news...

http://www.wrexham.com/news/video-driver-sentenced...

Asking for trouble? Yer' Darn Tootin'
From what i can tell none of those were seized at the roadside
With the exception of the biker group, who's cameras were recovered after they ditched them, all the others seem to relate to footage posted online.
Some were at the roadside, some from the owner or keeper not at the roadside, some after an accident and some from You Tube. All were lawfully obtained and all because the police believed that there was information that would assist in the course of an investigation. Where it was seized from is irellevant. I could put up more examples but I think there is sufficient to prove the point. Do you have some situations where he police won't be able to seize relevant evidence?
Even if there is speedometer or GPS speed recorded the relative accuracy of those can be shown with the video timing and distance moved by the camera.
Video evidence is compelling and is usually very accurate.

gnc

441 posts

114 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
quotequote all
buy a cheap £10 dashcam. mine looks through the windscreen, doesnt show the speedo.