Total Motion has applauded Police use of dash cam footage taken by the public in the ongoing fight against bad and dangerous driving on Britain’s roads.
With traffic police numbers falling by more than 25 per cent in the past six years due to Government cuts, we believe that installing dash cam is a sensible way of bringing lawless motorists to justice, as well as protecting drivers from fraudulent accident claims.
Evidence of the idea’s success can be seen in the results of Operation Snap, an initiative by North Wales Police which encourages members of the public to submit dash cam, helmet cam and mobile phone footage of poor and unsafe driving. 80 of the 100 clips given to the force have led directly to driving convictions, with some of the offenders caught in this manner receiving custodial sentences.
Of the 80, only two penalties have been appealed, as drivers who flout the law find it very hard to refute the on-camera evidence of their offending. In fact such has been Operation Snap’s effectiveness as an “eyewitness” in North Wales, that South Wales Police has since adopted the scheme. Other UK regional police forces are also considering running similar initiatives on their roads to tackle law breakers and get poor drivers to change their behaviour.
Simon Hill, managing director, comments: “I think dash cams are really positive and should be encouraged. The police can’t be everywhere so they should be able to use the footage submitted by the public to help them convict bad and dangerous drivers.”
He continued: “We’ve seen that where we have put dash cams in fleet cars, overall fleet costs have come down by more than 20 per cent. The cameras are expensive to install, however, so the return on investment is 14 to 18 months.”
Courts now accept footage submitted by the public as evidence, with dash cam clips used to prosecute motorists for a broad range of motoring penalties. These offences include driving without due care and attention, going through a red traffic light, failing to control a vehicle properly and using a mobile phone while driving.
According to Operation Snap’s findings, uploading dash cam footage is quick and simple to do, with penalty processing saving the police valuable time when compared with time spent by traffic officers catching offenders in person.
