Police warn against 'vigilante' dash cam use as motorists turn to social media to shame bad drivers

Updated

The increasing number of motorists using dashboard cameras and social media to catch bad drivers has prompted a warning from police against "vigilante" behaviour.

The cameras capture everything the driver sees out of the front windscreen, including accidents, near-misses and bad behaviour on the roads.

The footage has become wildly popular on the internet.

The Facebook page Dash Cam Owners Australia has more than 250,000 followers. Its YouTube videos attract tens of thousands of views.

Road Policing Command Inspector Simon Humphrey said the footage had proved useful in the past for police.

"If people do have footage that can help police then we encourage them to provide it to us," he said.

In one of the most extreme cases, a man was captured on dash cam speeding through a red light and killing three people at Oakleigh, in Melbourne's south-east, in January last year.

This video was not posted online but was handed over to a Melbourne news organisation who shared the vision with police.

It was described as one of the "worst examples of driving in Victoria's legal history" by prosecutors, who successfully used the footage in the case against the driver.

Inspector Humphrey said although this case had highlighted the benefits of the cameras, he was not entirely comfortable with the camera's "vigilante" nature.

"Ideally we'd just prefer if people just concentrated on the road and they weren't distracted with trying to capture footage of other drivers and behaviour generally," he said.

"Worry about your own driving, don't engage in vigilante behaviour."

Dash cameras a form of 'cheap insurance' for motorists

Troy Caine is an administrator of the Dash Cam Owners Australia page.

Most of the videos he posts show careless and reckless driving that would, at most, attract a fine from police.

But when footage showed crashes resulting in more serious consequences police stepped in, according to Mr Caine.

"We have been contacted by police on occasions in regards to some videos. However, they have been more on the serious end of the scale," he said.

He said motorists in Australia were increasingly turning to the cameras as a cheap form of insurance.

"Many drivers feel they cannot rely on the other party to tell the truth in an accident," he said.

"With police not required to attend minor accidents an insurance claim can often come down to who is able to tell the best story."

He said he believed the videos were so popular because, in part, people wanted to share in the naming and shaming of motorists.

"Yes, definitely. Although I don't believe this is an effective way of solving the issue of bad drivers I still believe some deserve (and) need it," he said.

Topics: social-media, internet-culture, accidents, police, australia

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