http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38884645
This is a step too far in my opinion. There are too many out there who will relish in the idea of being able operate as some form of law enforcement, and we all know that the public don’t know the law.
I followed a guy on the M54 yesterday who overtook a car, pulled in and touched the brakes, odd. As I was pulling along side and starting the overtake, he accelerated and essentially wouldn’t allow the overtake.
I got past him an a look in the rearview mirror saw him leaning across the car to play with his camera and drift across lanes.
I bet neither of his infractions were caught on the camera that he seemed to be using against others.
I apologise for the long winded story, I know it would have been much simpler to upload a quick movie. 😛

will relish in the idea of being able operate as some form of law enforcement,

The police are enforcing the laws, the general public are just reporting stuff. Like if you phone the police to say you’ve seen two blokes with swag bags breaking into your neighbour’s house.

This is a step too far in my opinion. There are too many out there who will relish in the idea of being able operate as some form of law enforcement

WMP are accepting camera evidence from cyclists of dangerously close passes to take action against offending motorists, are you against that too?

edit – as are North Wales according to the link. I’m all for it. Don’t drive dangerously and there won’t be film of you doing so.

Cumbria police have prosecuted with dashcam footage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-37963209

WMP are accepting camera evidence from cyclists of dangerously close passes to take action against offending motorists, are you against that too?

I guess you chose to ignore the bit where he drifted across the cariageway while playing with his camera. I am against anything that encourages people to drive badly. This seems to encourage people to focus on filming and looking out of bad drivers to film, rathger than on their own poor driving skills.

the flip side to an ever-growing dependency on cameras is that having been deliberately side-swiped by a moron in a van at the weekend and provided plod with details (inc number plate) they seemed to lose enthusiasm for taking it any further as I didn’t have any footage.

I guess you chose to ignore the bit where he drifted across the cariageway while playing with his camera. I am against anything that encourages people to drive badly.

If only you’d had a dashcam, you could have reported him and got a dangerous driver to change their behaviour, or got them off the road completely.

This seems to encourage people to focus on filming and looking out of bad drivers to film, rathger than on their own poor driving skills.

Does it, really? I don’t think it does. Do you really think the driver was messing with his camera so that he could send footage of himself weaving about and driving like a prat to the police?

I am not sure on the whole Dash Camera thing, I cannot see how it makes roads safer especially as it seems that it adds another device in the car that drivers are fiddling/looking at.

This said I can see that if there is crash it can help to lay blame.

Maybe an improvement in driving standards would help as there is some shocking drivers out there.

Sounds good to me.

Proper dashcams don’t need “fiddling” with, they operate automatically.

Are you sure they weren’t trying to film on their phone or something?

There’s no need to fiddle with a dash cam. Some people will, because people are people, but they’d find something else to distract them.

At the end of the day it’s just video evidence like any other. It’s not law enforcement, it’s not taking the law into your own hands, it’s just evidence.

Does it, really? I don’t think it does. Do you really think the driver was messing with his camera so that he could send footage of himself weaving about and driving like a prat to the police?

I’m bloody sure that if he hadn’t have had the camera, he would have spent more time focussing on driving a less time fiddling with camera.
I’ve already done the if I had a camera irony bit too. 😛 So it’s not lost on me. 😉

I reckon it would be a good way of clamping down on all the idiots who drive around while fiddling with smart phones. I say give everyone a dash cam, let them grass on other road users and then give them 10% of the fixed penalty (slight trolling alert 😀 ) if there’s a successful prosecution.

Dash cams + driver cams + black boxes + average speed cameras everywhere would certainly make an interesting impact on the roads. Mainly for the good I think. 🙂

One thing is that in the near future self-driving cars will no doubt record lots of stuff like this, if only for litigation reasons when they get in a smash with a meatbag-driven car, so it makes sense to get some procedures and case law in place now!

I guess you chose to ignore the bit where he drifted across the cariageway while playing with his camera.

No, I did consider your anecdote about a bloke you saw on the road who you believed was fiddling with a dashcam. It didn’t seem to have any connection with the actual film evidence the NorthWales Police were using to prosecute dangerous drivers. Unless you think it was the same driver?

As we’re talking about them;

What dash cam should I get?

Is it possible to get one that I can add a rear facing camera too as well?

I’m with the choir here – seems a great initiative, and if the chap in the anecdote didn’t have a camera he’d doubtless find something else to fiddle with (I now take a camera out on my road bike, and don’t touch it whilst riding). The vast majority of people with cameras drive just as safely is not more safely than those without.

I wish I’d had a dashcam when a North Wales Police car overtook a lorry when I was coming the other way forcing me to do an emergency stop!

II have a dash cam. It switches on automatically and is there so if someone drives straight up the middle of the road and rams me again, it’ll be recorded as evidence. It’s never occurred to me to fiddle with it on the move or use it to record anyone else’s misdemeanours.

What dash cam should I get?

I’d read some reviews, I got the Nextbase one that’s the Which? best buy, but I’m sure there are loads of perfectly good ones out there.

Is it possible to get one that I can add a rear facing camera too as well?

Yes.

Right, on that note… I use my phone as satnav so it’s generally down in the corner of the screen, pointing forwards. If there’s an app that can run as a dashcam in the background, it’s all basically in place and ready to go anyway. But most of these don’t want to run in the background it seems… Anyone know of anything that does? I don’t really want any fripperies, auto start, cloud upload, any of that, just the basics.

Autoguard.

I’m all for dash cam footage being used this way, far to many idiots on the road, driving with little or no regard to everyone else. I bought a ‘cheaper’ one (Viofo a119s), as my work location changed from a 20min journey to over an hour (on a very good day). Over the years I’ve had too many 50/50 claims as insurers are too ready to accept a fault on my behalf, rather than fight. It has changed the way I drive, as I no longer tend to casually speed, in case I have to hand the film in as evidence . Shirley this is no bad thing.. a friend said he wouldn’t get one for exactly that reason

I got £50 off my insurance by telling them I had a dashcam.

How much did the dashcam cost?

Cost of mine was around £130 iirc, for the camera, a separate gps module & a memory card. I looked around, at the different option & am happy with the features mine has, its also very understated so helpfully not a addition theft risk

I guess you chose to ignore the bit where he drifted across the cariageway while playing with his camera. I am against anything that encourages people to drive badly. This seems to encourage people to focus on filming and looking out of bad drivers to film, rathger than on their own poor driving skills.

I can’t imagine why someone should be arseing around with a dashcam, because once set up and put in place, it should function automatically. Because of the miles I drive every day now for my job, I’ve bought one just to have footage in case of there being an accident that needs witness footage, and mine doesn’t need to be touched at all.
It’ll give seven hours recording on one 32Gb card, so I stick it in place when I pick up a car, and let it run.
If, when I renew my car insurance, I get a discount for having a dashcam, then I’ll happily embrace the saving.

Bit of a surveillance society though, innit?

Nearly every large bus and coach company in the uk now have internal and external recording cameras, as do most trains, because of fraudulent claims and also to keep an eye on their drivers behaviour and reduce the number of maliciously reported incidents and to keep the cost of their insurance down.

Trouble with the front cams with rear facing lenses they don’t tend to get a very good picture through the cabin out of the back window.

I can’t imagine why someone should be arseing around with a dashcam

On the rather tenuous assumption the driver in question was a complete bellend. I’d wager they didn’t want their own bellendery to be recorded. Once they’d wound someone up time to switch the cam on and drive sensibly.

Maybe, possibly, probably not.