Motoring Discussion > dash cam query Miscellaneous
Thread Author: devonite Replies: 10

 dash cam query - devonite
Friend just been telling me he has to have a dash cam fitted! (Insurance req apparently) - He doesn't want or like the idea, but agrees that they can be useful in " backing - up" his version of events in an incident. Would like to know if.. (hypothetically) he was stopped for alleged speeding for e.g and it was a case of Police vs his word,( police no video evidence etc) could they seize his dash cam footage as their proof?

Ta!
 dash cam query - smokie
Not sure about the seizing bit but I've seen videos of people who have supposedly been prosecuted based on the footage of others. ISTR also seeing motorcyclists who have been done on the basis of their own footage so maybe they can
 dash cam query - Fullchat
Section 19 PACE 1984 allows the Police to seize evidence of an offence on 'premises'.

Common Law allows seizure of evidence for indictable or either way offences. Speeding is a summary offence so that is discounted (That nugget came off a forum so I cant say with certainty but I've no reason to contradict it)

There's a whole load of debate on the definition of 'premises'. For the purpose of Stop Search (Sec 1 PACE) a vehicle is deemed to be 'premises'. But for other offences it is not. So a warrant is not required to open a car door and arrest someone.

I think it is a matter of proportionality. If the speed was catagorised as dangerous or the driver was involved in a serious accident then it could be justified. There seems to be a good deal of different interpretations which doesn't help

Having said all that I don't thing there is a black or white answer. Similar to driver using mobile phones who dispute the offence. Could they have their phone seized and analysed?
 dash cam query - Fullchat
Nextbase seem to think that camera footage can be seized so their interpretation is that a vehicle is 'premises'

www.nextbase.com/en-gb/hub/can-police-take-your-dash-cam/
 dash cam query - CGNorwich
Yes they can sieze a dashcam if they believeit to contain important evidence much as they could seize your phone or lap top. Unlikely I would think in a simple case of speeding but if you tnink about say an inicident involving a pedestrian being knocked down it would seem entilerly proper tht they they could access any evidence available.

It would be an offence to destroy any evidence of a crime by deleting such a video.
 dash cam query - devonite
Thanks for the replies! - seem to be a few grey area's but I'll tell him yes to be on the safe side! - Angel or demons that is the question!

Luckily, I've never needed one but there is apparently a lot of folk on youtube that swear by them! - I don't really fancy one myself, but the way the roads are getting nowadays the Jury is out!
 dash cam query - martin aston
Many drivers are ignorant of the Highway Code and the law. Fitting a dash cam defensively could actually record their being at fault. Anyway none of us 100% right all the time.

It reminds me of a complaint on a local social media site recently where a woman was complaining that people refused to back up in narrow lanes for her 4x4 in defiance of “the law” that narrow vehicles have to give way to wider ones. No doubt she has dashcam evidence of drivers breaking this imaginary law!
 dash cam query - R.P.
We had this yesterday afternoon. A CRV just stopped in the lane...it became a sort of Japanese - German stand off, but Mrs RP relented in the end.....
 dash cam query - Bobby
I cannot understand why anyone would not want one.
For £50 or so it can be discreetly recording away and can be used if you are ever in an accident to back up your version of events.
Police now are always looking for cctv evidence for crimes, I am pretty sure insurance companies will default to 50/50 unless there is video evidence to the contrary very soon.

Red the OP, a strange requirement. All it takes is for the cable to the cig lighter socket to pop out and it won’t record. Would that mean your insurance is invalidated?
 dash cam query - Bromptonaut
>> Red the OP, a strange requirement. All it takes is for the cable to the
>> cig lighter socket to pop out and it won’t record. Would that mean your insurance
>> is invalidated?

I'd expect that if it's an insurance requirement a rather less precarious form of power supply would be required.
 dash cam query - James Loveless
Reminds me of a one-sided conversation I once had, when I lived in a smallish village in East Anglia, with a rather stroppy female acquaintance who drove a Range Rover. The area was characterised by narrow lanes and, in particular, a long narrow bridge in the middle of the village, with signs at each end saying "Give way to traffic on the bridge".

She announced to me that she never, ever reversed. She simply couldn't, she said, and she wasn't going to try. I managed to keep my mouth shut, but I would have welcomed the opportunity to put her resolution to the test.
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