DashCam

Personally I would GoPro...

 

For those that have or are considering purchasing a dash cam, I'm going to put out some info you should be aware of, and prepared for.

If you should record some event such as another vehicle running a red light, that results in a serious accident, your video will be evidence. If you are involved in the accident, keep in mind that this is your evidence, and you should protect and preserve it as such. A LEO may want to seize the storage medium (smart card that the video is recorded on), from you. This can be a very delicate issue. The LEO is well within his/her authority to seize it. However how do you know that it will be protected, that it will not get lost, altered or simply destroyed? I highlighted the word altered, because today the means to alter digital media is fairly inexpensive, and not all that difficult to do.

My suggestion is to provide the investigating officer with your name, address, phone number, and tell him/her that you will preserve it, and provide it in court when subpoenaed. Now you need to preserve it. That means you can not use that little smart card any more. That you must "lock" it so that nothing more can be recorded to it. You must also make sure that nothing is deleted. In court the attorneys will ask questions about this. One very common evidentiary question is "Did anyone else have access to it?" So if you took the smart card, and placed it in a common area of your house, where your wife, friends, relatives could have picked it up, that alone may cause your evidence to be thrown out. In order to get your evidence admitted under those circumstances, anyone that had access would need to testify if they did or did not tamper with it.

LEOs place evidence in packages or containers, and seal those with evidence tape. They must also date, and initial that package, and most will do so along the edges of that tape. Evidence tape is very thin, so when someone tries to peal it away, it will tear, thus revealing the attempt to open.

Next, you must think about what else was recorded? Could there be something that would harm your credibility? While the event (accident) is really all that is important, be prepared for questions on everything on that smart card. While you could copy just the clip pertaining to the event, they will question why you deleted or removed other recordings. They will want the original recording and the smart card. This leads me to how digital media is now accepted.

Thanks to the the folks that sued everyone for copying music, there is precedence that basically acknowledges a digital copy is identical to the original. In fact without being able to view the hidden properties that digital media products include within their files, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference, even when comparing multiple generations to the "original". Without taking pages and pages to explain, some compressed digital media file types do degrade over generations. Simply.. they use CO-DECs (COmpression DECompression) to record the data. The CODECs keep only the bare minimum data, and discard duplication. Again this would take pages to really explain. However other than the quality of the recording, the information (data) should still be there.

So with that said, you could provide the investigating officer with a "copy" of that recorded event. Still, you must be prepared to produce the original when it is subpoenaed.

Whew... This is just the tip of the ice, concerning evidence, chain of custody, preservation of evidence, blah, blah, blah. While using a dashcam is neat, if you're going to use those videos to prove or disprove a claim, then you better be ready, because your hollywood movie, and it's producer (you) will be scrutinized. The more serious the event, the more each will be questioned and scrutinized. While we are not expected to know all the intricacies of proper preservation and custody of evidence, the lawyers involved will still do everything they can to get your evidence thrown out.

Do you have any video editing software? Programs like Adobe's, Corel's, Magix? I don't think anyone here would use the real professional programs, that cost in the thousands of dollars just for the bare framework. These are what can be used to do some really neat stuff with your dash cam videos, so you can post them on YouTube. Edit your "evidence video", post it on YouTube and see if it gets accepted by the court into evidence. The opposing lawyer will be all over this with objections.

What I'd do at the "accident scene" if it does not directly involve you, tell the officer about your recording. Let him view it on your dashcam. Then tell him you can provide an exact copy of it. If your involved in the accident, ie; you run into the idiot that just ran the red light, or just cut in front of you and slammed on his brakes, tell the officer, not the idiot, you have a video recording of what happened. It's up to you if want to share it with the officer. DO NOT give your evidence to the officer. This is YOUR EVIDENCE, not the officer's. The officer represents the prosecution side. You may end up being a defendant, and your evidence in the oppositions hands can disappear. What do you have then, other than the old "He said, She Said". So hang on to it, protect it, preserve it, like you would your life. It could very well be your life, inside a prison cell, or going about it freely.

 

If personally involved in an accident I wouldn't even bring up the fact you have a cam in the truck on scene. They wont take it from you, if they don't know you have it.

But yeah, if I was a witness, I think it would be my civic duty to help in any way possible. If that involves losing my cam, then so be it.

The cop isnt a judge, and he most certainly does not have the final say in anything. I always try to keep that in mind when a LEO is making his decisions. I will have my day in court...

 

I would go through all above if I would know that dashcam would save my bacon ONE TIME.
I'll give the evidence to the cops and buy another memory card if so with no problem.
As long ONE TIME I will be saved by that cam I agree to all of the above.

 

If anyone films, records or photographs the person taking such recordings would be considered the Intellectual property rights holder. I used to video and photograph loads for insurance reasons and was advised to surrender my photos at a non secure shipper, I had no photos or other digital information stored but the shipper was livid.

I refused to surrender, last load hauled for them as well.

I am not saying law enforcement cannot seize the information, but would never say a word to anyone about it on location as others have stated.

Rule 1 of accidents, keep your trap shut and do not talk to anyone or volunteer any information besides the basics. < That information was from a very reputable accident attorney.

 

Well I'm not gears, but I finally got some time to get a video together. I have the cheaper dash-cam, but the quality is not that bad.

The video clips were edited using Corel VideoStudio Pro, SonifFire Pro (for the first music track).

[ame]http://youtu.be/di-ri1MS6Ps[/ame]

 

Quality looks great to me.
Question: what's the video quality when the sun goes straight into the cam ?

 

Unless you have an expensive cam, shooting straight into the sun is going to provide a very washed-out video. You would need a solar lens to avoid it.

This little dash-cam does have a manual brightness setting, where you can darken or lighten the exposure, just by pressing the UP or Down buttons.

 

Nice video! Mine are pretty much the same. 10-minute loop recording.
Great job!

 

Thats pretty nice Eaton18, Same cam I just bought. Less than 40 bucks is amazing.