Dashcam footage is now being sought by police that shows inappropriate or dangerous driving. Humberside Police have launched a facility to accept footage as they look to make our roads safer.
With one in four drivers now using dashcams, it is hoped the new system will help lead to prosecutions.
Chief Superintendent Christine Wilson, head of the Specialist Operations Unit, said;
“Our communities will be well aware of the increasing use of dashcams by motorists on our roads. Up until now, we have not had the capability of receiving uploaded footage from members of the public who witness inappropriate or dangerous driving behaviour by their fellow road users.
“However, we been working hard with our IT teams and have developed an online portal where members of the public can upload footage, and once we receive the footage one of our roads policing officers will review it.
“There are some conditions that we need the public to meet – firstly, the footage will need to be of a certain quality to enable us to consider it, and where clips do not meet the necessary requirements we will be unable to take any further action in relation to the report.
“If we review a piece of footage and it clearly shows that an offence has taken place, we have a number of options to consider taking. Sometimes that might involve us issuing an advisory letter to the owner of the offending vehicle. On other occasions, we will consider that the driver of the vehicle needs to be offered an opportunity to attend an educational course as an alternative to prosecution.
“For more serious offences, or where we have evidence of someone committing repeat offences, we will consider issuing a fixed penalty notice or, where appropriate, seek a prosecution.
“I want to be clear that this in no way replaces the traditional roads policing patrols that my teams do day-to-day – dealing with Dashcam footage is very much in addition to our usual tactics. You will still see roads policing vehicles on patrol, and also our partners in Safer Roads Humber conducting enforcement activity in key locations. We also have our Community Speedwatch teams operating in locations around the force.
“Road safety remains a priority for us and we will continue to ensure that roads users committing offences, that we know contribute to serious injury or fatal collisions such as using a phone whilst driving, driving under the influence of drink or drugs, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt or doing anything else that puts people on the road at risk, are dealt with robustly.
“Unfortunately we cannot be on every road at every minute of the day, but I am optimistic that this new option for reporting driving offences will encourage everyone who uses our roads to make sure that they are driving safely. The public is the best partner we have we have to set the standards of driving we expect, and we look forward to sharing with you some of the successes we know we will have in dealing with dashcam footage.”
You can upload the footage or images via our website now at: https://www.humberside.police.uk/dash
