UK motorists send 35 dash cam videos to police every day
A third of clips result in police action, including driver awareness courses, court appearances, fines and warnings
UK drivers are sending more than 35 dash cam videos to police every day according to research from What Car? magazine.
It’s thought around a quarter of the 32.7 million drivers in the UK have a dash cam, a huge increase of 850% since insurers started accepting this footage as evidence in claims in 2015.
The rise in use has also led to people sending their footage to the police to report others committing traffic offences.
Information obtained by Freedom of Information requests sent to every UK police force found that more than 52,000 pieces of footage have been submitted since 2017.
A third of the clips resulted in action from the police – most commonly a driver awareness course, which was the outcome for 11% of the cases caught on camera.
The 10% that were categorised as more serious offences went to court, with another 10% resulting in a fine. A much smaller percentage (3%) ended up with a warning.
Unsurprisingly, the Metropolitan Police in London received the highest number of dash cam videos at almost 25,000. This resulted in action in 45% of cases (19% went to court, 14% driver awareness courses, 10% were fined and 3% got a warning).
Dyfed-Powys Police in south Wales acted on the highest percentage of cases. Of the 375 pieces of footage it received since 2017, it acted on over 81%, with 40% getting a warning, 19% going to court and 18% going on a driver awareness course.
What Car? editor Steve Huntingford said: “Our Freedom of Information request shows the vast majority of police forces in the country can now receive and process footage from dash cams in a matter of hours, meaning reckless driving is more likely than ever to lead to a fine or even a court summons.”
And despite the Coronavirus pandemic resulting in fewer cars on the road, this hasn’t meant a decrease in the number of offences – they’re actually going up.
In the 12 weeks between August and mid-October, 3,805 videos were uploaded to the National Dash Cam Safety Portal (NDCSP), which is 78% more than the average for that length of time.
