Northampton Police has become the latest force to enable members of the public to report driving offences by uploading video evidence.
‘Operation Snap: Northamptonshire’ allows people to submit dashcam and mobile phone footage via an online portal, which can then be used to take action against drivers who have broken the law.
The initiative is run by the force’s Safer Roads Team, who is calling for evidence of offences including: dangerous driving, careless driving, using a mobile phone while driving, not wearing a seatbelt and failing to stop at a red light.
During the introductory test period, action was taken against 37 drivers – from a total of 59 video submissions.
PC David Lee, Northamptonshire Police Safer Roads Team, said: “Operation Snap lets the public help us keep our county’s roads safer by enabling us to take action on driving offences we otherwise wouldn’t see.
“When people see a marked police car they tend to drive carefully and behave, but we know members of the public see bad and dangerous driving all the time.
“This new service allows people to share evidence of that with us quickly and easily so we can take prompt and appropriate action.”
Operation Snap was first piloted by North Wales Police in October 2016 – and has since been rolled out across Wales.
Similar initiatives are also in place across England, including in Essex, where the Extra Eyes campaign has been running since December 2017.
I am about to fit front and rear cameras in my car. Rear-facing cameras are useful for close and aggressive following. Recently whilst keeping to 50 in a SPECS zone I had a lorry hard on my tail flashing it’s lights. Close following penalty is £100 and 3 points, bearing in mind that some 30% (possibly more) of crashes are front to rear end shunts. From a safety point of view I actually value the rear facing camera more valuable than a front facing one.
Nigel Albright
+2