Members of the public submitted an average of 89 pieces of dashcam footage to police forces every day in 2019.

A freedom of information request from breakdown service the RAC shows that 32,370 video recordings were submitted that year, which is double the number recorded in 2018 (15,159).

The data also shows that 25 per cent of these submissions resulted in a prosecution.

The RAC’s research suggests police forces are making it easier for members of the public to submit examples of bad driving. All 44 forces now accept footage with the ‘vast majority’ online through their websites.

Most submissions were sent to the Met Police, with 8,082, followed by Surrey (3,542) and the West Midlands (3,242).

A wide variety of potential offences were recorded, including dangerous or careless driving, driving too close to cyclists, going through red lights and using a mobile phone behind the wheel.

RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: “Even before the decline in the number of roads police enforcing traffic offences, law-abiding drivers were often frustrated that there was never an officer there to deal with infringements they witnessed.

“The advent of dashcams, phones with cameras and helmet cameras have been a game changer as drivers can now easily submit footage to almost every police force.

“As so many drivers and cyclists are now using dashcams and helmet cameras every road user needs to be very conscious that any of their actions that aren’t in accordance with the law could end up with the police. Some will inevitably find this out the hard way while others will hopefully become increasingly mindful of it.”

Williams added that the fact only 25 per cent of submissions result in a prosecution is likely because footage is not conclusive, while mobile phone footage might not capture enough of an incident to prove wrongdoing, unlike continuously recording dashcams.

Categories: Blog PostMotoringNews

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.