New Guidance For Helmetcam Reports in London

The MET have issued new guidance.

https://road.cc/content/news/police-unable-deal-motorists-driving-bike-lanes-310549

No proceeding will be taken if

” their complaints will not be dealt with if they “actively” confront or engage with a motorist committing a driving offence, ”

” the only time you will be contacted further is if we need to check your availability to attend court.”

“complaints will not be accepted where footage has been “lifted directly from social media”, that footage should not be uploaded to social media until the case is concluded, that the footage cannot be edited in any way, and that the clips will be shared with the offending driver.”

“We are also unable to deal with any offences relating to driving/riding in bus/cycle lanes and the majority of offences relating to contravention of road traffic signs. This includes, but is not limited to, ‘keep left’, ‘no motor vehicle’, ‘one-way street’ and ‘no left/right turn’ signs.”

So that last paragrgraph. Is that Cycling Mikey out of business for filming drivers ignoring a keep left bollard. As he confronts them that is a second reason (excuse) for the police to take no action.

In the comments the word is the cam reports of drivers using a mobile at the wheel are all going ahead. Which is good.

If your conduct is deemed to be aggressive, unacceptable, or does not conform to the Met Police values

Something of an oxymoron there.

Is that Cycling Mikey out of business

Yep.

His entire youtube channel became popular not because he was filming people doing naughty things, but because he would confront them.

Soon as the confrontatoin drops off so does a good number of his views. He then needs to choose between engaging for the views, or quietly reporting and going to court.

Honestly sounds to me like the legal system cannot keep up with the steady increase in submissions. So they would rather let motorists get away with it than increase capability to prosecute in line with desire to offend.

But if you don’t get a picture/video of the drivers actual face in the act of doing something wrong you can’t get a prosecution anyway, because a numberplate can’t identify the driver, which would quite easily lead to an “active” confrontation whether you want one or not.

It is remarkable how low a policing priority antisocial driving is considering that apparently councillors’ surgeries are full of people complaining about it (and potholes).

There just isn’t the available staff/officers to deal with ‘everything’. It’s simple really.

A picture of the driver’s face is desirable but not essential. For traffic offences either the reg keeper names the driver or the reg keeper gets charged with failing to name the driver. It’s how speed cameras which photograph your rear plate are processed.

I guess as there isn’t the police time to prosecute everything reported to them at least clear guidelines are useful.

Seems reasonable on the surface, if it means focus on instances where they can actually do something. Of course that’s a big if, but I imagine confrontations make it a lot more complicated, and sharing on social media means 3rd parties reporting the same incident. It’s not a petition.

Indeed this is focussing on the more ‘extreme’ end of offending while driving.

I worry though that the ‘low level’ being ignored will lead to a free for all for any driver who see fit, knowing they won’t be prosecuted.