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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12031540/Dash-cam-footage-of-dangerous-overtaking-lands-driver-in-jail-in-UK-first.html

Beyond belief?

Edited to add the website mentioned http://www.policewitness.com/

there is some very interesting discussion about this on pistonheads - it might or might not be as it comes across...
there are some interesting questions about why the driver was overtaken several times by the same lorry / about the fact that the motorist just happens to run a webcam business / and a number of other quite interesting questions...

of course, no excuse for the lorry driver... but...

Alasdair

akirk wrote:there is some very interesting discussion about this on pistonheads - it might or might not be as it comes across...
there are some interesting questions about why the driver was overtaken several times by the same lorry / about the fact that the motorist just happens to run a webcam business / and a number of other quite interesting questions...

of course, no excuse for the lorry driver... but...

Alasdair

Same company, different article. Having read about the lorry behaviour I'm sorely tempted to remove the link above. The prat needs no help promoting his site.

ahh - apologies, the other case has been all over the media, so assumed that one...

"To date, nearly 1,000 motorists up and down the country have faced positive formal police action following the submission of dash cam footage by those who call themselves PoliceWitnesses.

so basically vigilantes... and wanna-be policemen
not sure that is a good move for our country...

Alasdair

I tried using policewitness to submit footage of a car running a red light (roadworks I was at front of queue and car came past 3 or 4 others +me and blasted through before other's light turned green)

The cheeky beggars wouldn't take my footage unless I bought one of their dash cams.... I already had two so didn't need another funnily enough.... I was quite disappointed with the whole experience. I ended up reporting to local station who forwarded on to Cumbria police who I hope prosecuted as it was potentially a dangerous manouvere,

Oh dear. So not only do we have to put up with speed cameras we now have do goodies looking to report drivers for any perceived indiscretion. What motivates these busy bodies to do this sort of thing? It seems odd that when some scumbag broke into my garage the police weren't interested in the CCTV footage as there wasn't a sign saying it was in use. I assume these prats don't have signs on their spy cars. But I guess as its a motorist being nicked it doesn't matter. Im not condoning the driving of that bloke but where does all this end?

Rick448 wrote:Oh dear. So not only do we have to put up with speed cameras we now have do goodies looking to report drivers for any perceived indiscretion. What motivates these busy bodies to do this sort of thing? It seems odd that when some scumbag broke into my garage the police weren't interested in the CCTV footage as there wasn't a sign saying it was in use. I assume these prats don't have signs on their spy cars. But I guess as its a motorist being nicked it doesn't matter. Im not condoning the driving of that bloke but where does all this end?

Worse than that. The owner of the business appears happy to try and provoke other motorists into misbehaving so he can upload footage and show his "outrage" as a way of selling cameras (that can be bought much cheaper on Amazon).

I suspect it ends when the police are overwhelmed by the amount of evidence they are presented with. Maybe we'll move to a "reality" TV show where half a dozen offences are screened in a show and the audience vote for the one that gets prosecuted

jont- wrote:

Rick448 wrote:Oh dear. So not only do we have to put up with speed cameras we now have do goodies looking to report drivers for any perceived indiscretion. What motivates these busy bodies to do this sort of thing? It seems odd that when some scumbag broke into my garage the police weren't interested in the CCTV footage as there wasn't a sign saying it was in use. I assume these prats don't have signs on their spy cars. But I guess as its a motorist being nicked it doesn't matter. Im not condoning the driving of that bloke but where does all this end?

Worse than that. The owner of the business appears happy to try and provoke other motorists into misbehaving so he can upload footage and show his "outrage" as a way of selling cameras (that can be bought much cheaper on Amazon).

I suspect it ends when the police are overwhelmed by the amount of evidence they are presented with. Maybe we'll move to a "reality" TV show where half a dozen offences are screened in a show and the audience vote for the one that gets prosecuted

Hmmm that's interesting. Maybe this could backfire for him. There are clearly potential conflicts of interest here.

I don't have a dashcam but I think the motivation for most could be a genuine concern for safety of themselves and others.

I saw a learner motorcyclist ride in a very unsafe manner recently...if I'd drawn level with him at traffic lights I would have tried to have a word (but probably be subjected to a load of abuse) - my heart was in my mouth watching him...if he carries on like that he will soon be an 'ex-motorcyclist'.

The lack of traffic police means some want to at least report the idiots.

akirk wrote:so basically vigilantes... and wanna-be policemen
not sure that is a good move for our country...
Alasdair

Agreed...and I have no intention of having a camera...

But... Have we never seen anything that was so bad that reporting it would be a decent thing to do and might, just possibly, save someone's life?

If I'd had footage of the bloke driving in the middle lane of the motorway texting or the one on his phone for (literally) miles driving through Liverpool...I might well have used it.