Would you give police your dashcam footage?

August 28, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

In the UK one police force is using dashcam footage to catch dangerous drivers. They have issued over 80 tickets to reckless drivers since October 2016 using the footage that other drivers are giving them. It was reported in THISISMONEY.CO.UK that North Wales Police are now encouraging the public to upload the footage from their cameras showing dangerous drivers. The new system is allowing police to catch drivers they would not otherwise get.

In a first for the UK the New Wales Police are taking the footage from the general public and reviewing it. Dashcams were originally being used as protection from fraud but are now being used to turn in fellow drivers on the road. The Police managed to convict a driver of dangerous driving and put him in jail in December of 2015. Since then they have been using this new enforcement tool to help in times of budget cutbacks Apparently, there are so many submissions that the police are having a hard time keeping up with them.

It used to take an average of 15 hours to charge offenders under old rules which treated the footage in the same way as an eye-witness report. Now however, the footage is treated like speeding camera footage and it takes about 15 minutes to review the footage and lay a charge. Police review each case and send the tickets to the guilty driver who can chose to please guilty or not guilty and proceed to court. The new method is so successful that the police are calling on horse riders and cyclists to turn in their footage as well.

Charges to date have included dangerous driving, distracted driving, passing in no passing zones, funning red lights, improper control of a vehicle, and cell phone use. Perhaps the best part of the story is that only two people have so far pled not guilty and in court were convicted.

Police throughout the UK are now looking to adopt the enforcement tool.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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