UK Operation Snap, what the police do with the bad driving videos you send in

[Nigel]

These are dashcam videos released by the UK police, of clips recorded by the public, and submitted via the Operation Snap website. A couple of them resulting in driving bans.

Some decent fines being handed out by Humberside Police, and more importantly plenty of points, so just two of these reports would qualify for a driving ban:

Devon and Cornwall Police, most of the fines seem rather low, but the penalty points are still significant:

West Midlands Police:

Something different, Durham Police, not video from the public but police video of them chasing the driver of a stolen car with a Police Drone, far quicker and more effective than a helicopter, and you can keep one in the back of your patrol car, charged up and ready for the chase. The criminals try to get away from the police helicopters, apparently not from the drones:

 

[Kremmen]

They obviously don't realise that dashcams are filming them

 

[mentadent]

Likely not true as UK but pretty cool.

 

[Nigel]

They obviously don't realise that dashcams are filming them

I suspect in most of these videos, they simply don't care, just as they don't care about other peoples safety.
The only answer to that is the police having more teeth, they apparently do care about the "land sharks"!

However it doesn't take many dashcam videos to be sent in, for them to get a driving ban. I don't know how effective driving bans are, ANPR cameras do appear to catch quite a lot of banned drivers, so presumably a lot of people ignore them. Maybe our dashcams should have ANPR and be on the lookout for banned drivers too? Would be quite easy to do these days.

 

[kamkar]

I am embarrassed that we do not have a similar system in Denmark, not least since otherwise we are encouraged to " rat " on each other like on a East Germany / STASI level.
This is of course based in that fact that the police here are in no way cable of handling something like that, generally on a manpower problem.
There is a standing order for police investigating financial crime, if the amount that is stolen is under 500.000 DKkr,,,,, do nothing, as police say here " wash " the case.
but even clear cut cases with all the evidence there get " washed " though they have learned to not do that in a day, so now cases are put in a shelf for a few months to collect dust, then they are " washed "
This is the norm according to police from 10 out of 12 police precincts here coming forward and talking to the press,,,,,, their leaders and up,,,,,, Ooooo no this can not be, i am not aware of such things happening, and it is the same people that have released written instructions on how to and when to " wash " cases.

Here in the local cop shows on TV we regularly see people driving without a licence, some multiple repeat offenders, as conventional means clearly is useless i suggest a removal of part of a leg and in that way stopping the person from operating a motor vehicle.

IF ! i was the dictator here, the country would probably have to endure a longer period under a lock down CUZ i would have to fire / prison most of the current police force, so military would have to keep the streets here " quiet "
Mind you i also do NOT have too much faith in the Danish military or Navy, clearly these are sick too and need to get sorted out.
And then,,,,,, i would arm law abiding Danes that want to be armed.

 

[TonyM]

I was surprised that they were able to identify the offending drivers in all these examples, given the average quality of the video recordings and the high relative speed in some instances. It just goes to show that you don't need the latest & greatest STARVIS 2 cameras for an effective dashcam video. I noted that none of them were recorded at night though.

 

[Nigel]

I was surprised that they were able to identify the offending drivers in all these examples, given the average quality of the video recordings and the high relative speed in some instances. It just goes to show that you don't need the latest & greatest STARVIS 2 cameras for an effective dashcam video. I noted that none of them were recorded at night though.

Most of those videos have been heavily edited, most zoomed in until we can't read the plates, others blurred so we can't identify people, and then they have also heavily blurred some of the plates so that it looks like they haven't blurred the rest even though they have. The brightness and colours have also been matched between the clips, so professionally done. Over did the zoom for the bike cam though, no way was it really that wobbly!

Also, there is a national police forensics department that will help out any police force that wants a questionable plate read, probably has an expert AI to analyse them.

They may have deliberately chosen some poor quality clips, just to encourage people to send in poor footage, these are essentially adverts to get more people to send stuff in.

 

[kamkar]

IMO the people doing the polices work should be getting a little, say some % of the fine, that is only fair for serving crime on a platter to the police.

 

[mentadent]

You have to fill out a giant form giving out so much info and agreeing to some deep stuff to upload, wow.

 

[mentadent]

IMO the people doing the polices work should be getting a little, say some % of the fine, that is only fair for serving crime on a platter to the police.

They had this in China for a few months, you could send in dashcam videos and get paid. They do it right now in Vietnam, you can get 5 million DONG.

 

[TonyM]

You have to fill out a giant form giving out so much info and agreeing to some deep stuff to upload, wow.

Yes, they say it takes just a few seconds, but the form filling is time consuming. I've done a few and had worthwhile results. At least I thought it was worthwhile anyway.

 

[mentadent]

It's all the legal things I am not comfortable with. But everyone is different.

 

[Kremmen]

If it helps stop a serious accident involving innocents because they have been 'seen' and reported then I think it's worth the effort

 

[Nigel]

It's all the legal things I am not comfortable with. But everyone is different.

Unfortunately the legal stuff is necessary, because it is not the dashcam that gives the evidence, it is you that gives the evidence. However having filled in the form, that is probably the last you will hear about it other than a message to let you know how it was dealt with.

You do need to check that you don't incriminate yourself, occasionally someone does send in evidence showing themselves being worse than the person they are complaining about, and the police do occasionally prosecute the submitter, or both; probably only if they don't want to hear from you again though!

 

[kamkar]

DONG is also a Danish Company, Danish Oil & Natural Gas

 

[mentadent]

Do they have a rule about having like 3 minutes before and 3 minutes after, to avoid the cutting down a clip to change the story @Nigel ?

 

[Nigel]

DONG is also a Danish Company, Danish Oil & Natural Gas

Was!
It is now known as Ørsted, the UK's biggest supplier of wind power, maybe bigger here than in Denmark?

 

[Nigel]

Do they have a rule about having like 3 minutes before and 3 minutes after, to avoid the cutting down a clip to change the story @Nigel ?

Last time I submitted something, they wanted original files, which was a problem because at 60Mb/s and 10 minutes length, they exceeded their server upload limit, I now use 1 minute files! I don't remember anything about needing x minutes, although I imagine if you submit a video of road rage then they may come back and ask for more than 3 minutes. It probably also depends on which Police force you are submitting to, some seem much better than others, and there are still a lot of Scottish ones that don't have an Op Snap, despite public demand/campaigns for it.

Legally, it is up to you how much you submit, whatever they ask, you don't need to give any evidence that you don't want to. So use common sense as to how much they need to have evidence that would convince a court in the unlikely event that they take it to court. Most of these incidents are dealt with using fixed fines, which most drivers just pay, to avoid the costs increasing. I guess bans do need to go to a magistrates court, but they wont normally call witnesses unless it escalates beyond that. Don't give them any more evidence than they are going to need.

 

[kamkar]

Thats correct they did get rebranded, and Ørsted probably also gone soon as part of the trend here of running everything into the ground.
The National anthem here have a line that go like " there is a wonderful country " i always thought is could be changed to was, CUZ i see nothing getting better or more wonderful for Danes.