Operation Snap

yellowlawn

So I have just received a police notification asking to identify a driver of my vehicle. Apparently they want to charge someone for driving without due care and attention on a certain date. It appears a member of the public has reported my vehicle with possible video footage being driven without due care and attention. It seems you can report another driver if you have photos or video evidence to the police for prosecution. Is this legit does anyone know? And like the police who have there camera equipment tested and of a certain specification, that doesn’t seem to apply to the public.

elsien

People submit dashcam information all the time. 

I would imagine that the Police make a decision on each video submitted whether the quality of it is good enough or not to be able to proceed. 

If there is a prosecution, I suppose the person being prosecuted would then have the option of seeing the evidence and challenging it if they felt it was wrong or doctored in some way. 

From your very careful phrasing, it feels a bit like you acknowledge that something may have happened and want to see if there’s a way out?

CliveOfIndia

Presumably the footage that was submitted gives the police enough reason to suspect the offence occurred, and that the registration plate is clearly visible.  That being the case, it's no different to being caught by a speed camera - they will contact the Registered Keeper in the first instance, who can then nominate another driver if that was indeed the case.

Obviously, don't try and falsely nominate someone else - you'll be in a whole heap of trouble if you do that and get found out.

MacPingu1986

Yes - Operation Snap is legit.

Speed cameras for prosecution of strict liability speeding offences have to meet various requirements.

For general offending (motoring or otherwise), "normal" video footage can be used as evidence, whether that's a security camera, dashcam etc... Clearly the better the video footage the more useful it is as evidence.

Okell

If you've received a NIP/s172 request to name the driver you must do so within 28 days - regardless of what you think about it.

If you don't you will be committing the separate offence of failing to identify the driver and you'll get 6 points, a large fine and an endorsement code that will see your insurance premiums soar.

If you think about it there's no reason at all why the police should not take action based on photographic evidence supplied by a member of the public if that evidence appears to show a criminal offence being committed.

If there's an allegation of driving without due care and attention I don't see the relevance of any camera being tested or being of a particular specification.  Either it clearly shows an offence or it doesn't.

Aretnap

yellowlawn said:

 It seems you can report another driver if you have photos or video evidence to the police for prosecution. Is this legit does anyone know? And like the police who have there camera equipment tested and of a certain specification, that doesn’t seem to apply to the public.

There's no need for photo or video evidence at all. If you witness a crime you can report it - the rules are no different for careless driving than they are for robbery or for murder. If you filmed someone being stabbed in the street with your camera phone would you expect the police to throw the footage in the bin because your phone wasn't of the same specification as police cameras? Why do you think that driving offences would be any different? 

Obviously whether the police actually take action depends on a number of factors including the seriousness of the offence and the quality of the evidence. They're unlikely to do much about a minor incident of careless driving based on an eyewitness report from a member of the public alone, but in principle there's not reason why they couldn't. And obviously if there's decent quality camera footage to back up the eyewitness testimony, they're more likely to take action.

Ayr_Rage

Plenty of videos submitted by the public are on the Devon and Cornwall Police media sites detailing the offences and outcome.

Nasqueron

I spent 5 years doing this a cyclist, dangerous close passes, red light running, wrong way down one way street, illegal turns etc, never got a response on any but WMP do seem to push a few looking at FOI requests. First one I did at the new office when walking there, of a guy ragging it up the wrong way up a one way street with just phone footage, police responded and said they were prosecuting!

At the very least, I hope some of these people like the driver who went through a red nearly hitting a pedestrian just so he could pull into his drive and probably had no clue about the red, get driver education plans to improve

DE_612183

Nasqueron said:

I spent 5 years doing this a cyclist, dangerous close passes, red light running, wrong way down one way street, illegal turns etc, never got a response on any but WMP do seem to push a few looking at FOI requests. First one I did at the new office when walking there, of a guy ragging it up the wrong way up a one way street with just phone footage, police responded and said they were prosecuting!

At the very least, I hope some of these people like the driver who went through a red nearly hitting a pedestrian just so he could pull into his drive and probably had no clue about the red, get driver education plans to improve

Are you this guy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm6g2GP912ku4lPd-155-Vw

Okell

Doubt it - he doesn't sound like he's been anywhere near as successful as CyclingMikey...

mr_stripey

CyclingMikey always pops up on my TikTok. Can't decide if I love him or hate him!