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Dash cam submissions up - Guardian story

by duncanap
Sat, Dec 30, 2023 12:13
10

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/30/rise-in-dashcam-submissi...

It’s surprising how low the number of submissions are, and I am surprised as well at the comment that “many result in police action”. Maybe they are discounting all the submissions which don’t pass the initial screening - or just don’t get seen in time to action due to lack of resources. It still feels like a poor replacement for properly trained traffic police.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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stonojnr | 4 months ago
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Im waiting for the latest FOI numbers to go up as I suspect submissions in Suffolk will have dropped in the last year. not because incidents are dropping or the police are patrolling more.

they changed their portal from a simple submit dashcam report style, where it was much more obvious how to submit close pass reports, to this much more formalised report a road traffic incident portal. linked to nextbase so Im not sure if its UK wide or just a local setup thing.

but its clearly designed to report more serious road crashes and incidents, asks you to provide witness statments (as in independent witnesses not your witness statement) and so on, then well heres 5mins of video where some idiot has close passed me whilst Im on a bicycle can you take a look.

and I cant help think that creates a barrier to reporting, it certainly has for me, which is hard not to think is a deliberate way to ease the numbers & processing time they were handling. As in the past they actually requested people didnt submit anything over the Christmas holidays because of staffing levels to cope.

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HoarseMann | 4 months ago
2 likes

The latest video from West Midlands Police - a suspended prison sentence for one driver who overtook across a zebra crossing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnzsYERjooE

With a bit of effort from the Police to prosecute these drivers and the pubilcity that acts as a deterrent, there is a chance the roads could become safer for vulnerable users.

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wtjs replied to HoarseMann | 4 months ago
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With a bit of effort from the Police to prosecute these drivers and the publicity that acts as a deterrent, there is a chance the roads could become safer for vulnerable users

A charmingly Panglossian view for the first day of the New Year. Experience will tell, by the second day, that we're not going to get that effort- or, at least, not most of us. I can say for sure that none of those cases in the WMP compilation would have gone anywhere other than the bin in Lancashire. Apologies for repeating this case yet again, but it shows the lengths to which some police forces are prepared to go to avoid taking any action. WU59 UMH (you'll remember the 6 1/2 years bureaucracy-free motoring) spent most of New Years Eve (apart from a couple of hours in the afternoon) parked outside the most 'spit and sawdust' disreputable pub in Garstang, as I thought it would. This is it early this morning

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HoarseMann replied to wtjs | 4 months ago
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Well, you could fill in this form: https://contact.dvla.gov.uk/report-untaxed-vehicle

It can't be too hard for the DVLA to get in touch with the driver, given their mobile number is on it!

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wtjs replied to HoarseMann | 4 months ago
1 like

It can't be too hard for the DVLA to get in touch with the driver, given their mobile number is on it!

I've done all this years ago- they don't respond and they don't do anything. Just like Lancashire Constabulary. In the case of the DVLA, they don't even pretend to be interested- there's no way to upload a photo of the offending vehicle on the road for the simple reason that your report goes straight in the bin 'because we're too busy'. Look at LV55 VLR here, no VED since 1.10.22. This bloke is a serial offender: on 16.11.22 no MOT and no VED. On 20th March and 13th November 23 No VED. The police declare 'it's nothing to do with us' for ANY VED/ SORN offence no matter what the duration. When you point out to the police that MOT 'evasion' is definitely to do with them and they never do anything about that either, they just don't reply.

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mattw | 4 months ago
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These are "National Dash Cam Safety Portal" reports - does that cover all forces?

They also claim, which for me does not ring true if it is all areas:

"People in the Midlands and the north appear to have been the biggest adopters of the new reporting method, with about two-thirds of the videos uploaded in 2023 submitted to police in the West Midlands, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Northumberland and South Yorkshire forces."

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Rendel Harris replied to mattw | 4 months ago
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mattw wrote:

These are "National Dash Cam Safety Portal" reports - does that cover all forces?

It covers all forces (I think) but not all submissions as many forces still have their own dedicated portals open and you can report through either; as it says in the article, there have been 33,500 submisisons through the NDCSP but over 100,000 in total, so clearly a lot of people (self included) just report directly.

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Bungle_52 | 4 months ago
1 like

Coincidentally this appeared on our local news site. Here is the link if anyone is interested.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/gloucestershi...

Gloucestershire police sorry for months of delays in responding to freedom of information requests

From the article:

"The issue is so serious they are recruiting more staff to its information disclosure unit to meet the demand. The issue came to light after Gloucestershire County Councillor David Willingham (LD, St Mark's and St Peter's) requested statistics for Operation SNAP which is the reporting tool that allows uploading of dash-cam footage to the police.

He submitted his request for information on September 4 but as of today (December 29) they have yet to provide him with the information. "Freedom of information legislation is important in allowing the press and public to hold public authorities to account,” Cllr Willingham said."

Gloucestershire started using OpSnap last year and no longer give any feedback for reports. I have heard nothing from them since my first report whereas I used to get immediate feedback for all my reports before that. The feedback wasn't always encouraging but at least I knew where I stood.

A link to my favourite

https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-674-driver-inconveniences-cyclist-288521

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Bungle_52 | 4 months ago
3 likes

Thanks for the link, an interesting and generally encouraging article. A couple of things jumped out for me :

"Dangerous drivers are being caught on camera and shopped to the police in increasing numbers, with other drivers and the general public having sent more than 100,000 video reports to UK police forces."

"The road safety charity Brake said initiatives that encouraged the public to support police in tackling dangerous driving were welcome."

Noet the difference in language between the Guardian (shopped) and Brake (support police in tackling dangerous driving)

"People in the Midlands and the north appear to have been the biggest adopters of the new reporting method, with about two-thirds of the videos uploaded in 2023 submitted to police in the West Midlands, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Northumberland and South Yorkshire forces."

I note that Lancashire doesn't feature in the top 5.

Finally a quote from CUK

“It’s vital that every force across the UK puts that evidence to good use to make our roads safer for everyone.”

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wtjs replied to Bungle_52 | 4 months ago
1 like

“It’s vital that every force across the UK puts that evidence to good use to make our roads safer for everyone.”

Unfortunately, the good use that at least several forces have in mind is The Bin

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