Transferring video to the Police accident investigator

Richy

Richy

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DOD GS600 G1W-C B40/A118
It's hard. Most of us are not prepared for this step. Try taking your 32GB card out of the camera and handing it to the officer doing the accident report. You'll be shocked. Most PD's are not prepared. They don't carry microSDHC to USB adapters. You must supply one.
Next problem: do you want the Cop to view your 250 1-minute files? You must do the reviewing and provide him with only the relevant files. Try using your cell phone. They suck.
Best solution for now is a 7-10" tablet. Transfer the card from the camera to the tablet, review and copy the
relevant files to the tablet memory, then stick in a USB thumb drive (you carry one don't you) and copy the
files to the thumb drive. Give that to the Cop. He can plug that into his laptop.
Next shock: many PD's disable Windows Media Player so he can't review your video in the field.
You will have to show it to him on your tablet. This is reality.
 
I bought one of these and keep a cheap SD card handy. I can transfer the required video file from the 32 gb micro card to the phone and then to the cheap card to hand off. I can also play the video on my phone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00DKMUBXQ
 
I don't think you need to provide the accident investigator any video evidence at the accident site. You can provide it later, and insist that it be included in the final report, as long as you submit it promptly. Personally, I'd never consider giving anyone my "raw" SD card, or deal with data transfer to a thumb drive while in the field. I'd go home and copy the file to a CD first, and/or upload the file and give the link to the investigator. Or have my insurance carrier deal with it.
 
I'd opt to to send them a http://mega.co.nz download link, or transfer to a low cost thumb drive to hand them copy later. (or even burn native raw files as data DVD)
So unless they insist on confiscating the card no the spot, probably wait until later.
 
When I had my crash last year the State Trooper who arrived on scene wanted to see my dashcam video. He actually drove to my house the next day to review the footage. I just burned the files to a CD and he was able to play them on his laptop.
 
Usually here in the US they will have an email account and can give that to you. You can then email it directly to them if the clip is small enough, or in my case I provide them a link to a shared dropbox folder. I have had no complaints yet, and I've provided video to at least 100 officers and the DEA and FBI in the last couple of years. This video is general surveillance related footage but would hold true for dash cams too.

Dashcam footage at the scene is tricky, I'd just try to send it later as doing everything right then is hard to do usually and time consuming too and they are busy people that are ready to move on to next call many times.
 
Razer said:
Usually here in the US they will have an email account and can give that to you. You can then email it directly to them if the clip is small enough, or in my case I provide them a link to a shared dropbox folder. I have had no complaints yet, and I've provided video to at least 100 officers and the DEA and FBI in the last couple of years.
Click to expand...

Great tip. I've almost witnessed several crashes in the past couple of months and have been thinking about this.
 
I put the card in my laptop and played the video for the officer at the scene. He told me to keep the file safe in case the other driver tried to plead not guilty. He also noted in the accident report that "Driver 2 recorded incident on dashcam. Officer reviewed footage and found it was consistent with Driver 2 statement and Witness 1 statement"
 
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I put a link in digitally signed PDF application which was sent to state police official e-mail address. They were able to watch the video and fine the driver in video.
 
I have a wireless dashcam. I can watch the recorded video on my 5" smartphone screen and the policeman can watch it too if he don't want to watch it to my car. I can even go 80 meters to police car just to show them the video. I can transfer it to my smartphone and from there to their laptop or smartphone with bluetooth enable. I can upload it and send the link using email or SMS option.
I all this time I don't touch the dashcam.
And starting one year ago I said the future dashcam is wireless, no display and because of this smaller. Because almost every driver have a smartphone.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Mtz said:
I can watch the recorded video on my 5" smartphone screen and the policeman can watch it too if he don't want to watch it to my car.
Click to expand...

I thought of a question today. Is there a way of zooming in into a license plate when reviewing the video? Is there a special smartphone app for this? The reason I ask is that I had an accident (side swipe) one time where the person drove off and I had to pay the insurance deductible. :mad:

I did not have a dashcam at the time but is there a way to quickly view the license plate on the dashcam or my smartphone? My dashcam does not have this zoom functionality and my smartphone does not play the videos when I insert the microSD card :( so I don't know if it natively supports zoom either.

I would not necessarily want to give the video file to the police immediately (certainly not all 32GB on the microSD); I just want to provide the license plate and car make/model for the police report so they can go after the driver immediately and check for alcohol or the like. For my insurance report, I can view the video on my computer and get the necessary information and copy the appropriate file onto USB stick if they want it.
 
You can try MX Player or BS Player. When you zoomed into license plate you can press the Power and Volume - buttons and obtain a screenshot. And you can give only that screenshot, quickly.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
I've had occasion to hand over footage both as witness and victim. On all occasions, the police were happy for me to hand the footage in at the station/post it to their station.
I dropped the raw file onto disk along with the relevant segment (in Power Director), photos as well as clipped/zoomed photos plus pics from Google earth to show exact location.
 
Where I live, the State Police refuse (are not permitted) to download footage from any web sites like Mega, Dropbox or other cloud services. They require video footage/photographs/text files to be submitted on CD or DVD, which they refer to formally as "digital media". They do this for security reasons and they scan everything that comes in before viewing/reading.
 
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Razer said:
Usually here in the US they will have an email account and can give that to you. You can then email it directly to them if the clip is small enough, or in my case I provide them a link to a shared dropbox folder. I have had no complaints yet, and I've provided video to at least 100 officers and the DEA and FBI in the last couple of years. This video is general surveillance related footage but would hold true for dash cams too.

Dashcam footage at the scene is tricky, I'd just try to send it later as doing everything right then is hard to do usually and time consuming too and they are busy people that are ready to move on to next call many times.
Click to expand...

I agree, and would never provide Law Enforcement with anything other than required at the scene. Email/Dropbox transfer of this later would be an excellent way to provide this information.
 
I carry a card reader that allows me to easily transfer dash cam footage to an iPad while I'm out and about. If I really felt I needed to, I guess I could show it to a LEO but I probably wouldn't at the scene of an incident, under most circumstances. Regardless of how one chooses to hand over footage to the police, I would never do so until I have had an opportunity to thoroughly review the "evidence" beforehand. In my almost five years of using dash cams I have learned that it often takes careful, sometimes frame by frame analysis of footage to know what you've really captured (or haven't). One can jeopardize one's legal case by handing over footage you haven't yet scrutinized and there can be unexpected consequences. On the other hand, once you know what is in the footage, you know exactly what kind of legally actionable evidence you are submitting. There can even be times when you might want to review your footage with an attorney before you commit to presenting it to law enforcement or the judicial system. I say this as someone who has captured dash cam footage that led directly to the arrest of someone for harassment/stalking/reckless endangerment.
 
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