So that means not mounted behind the mirror though I assume?
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Dash/Windshield Mounted Video Cameras and State Laws
- Thread starter USNA69
- Start date
So that means not mounted behind the mirror though I assume?
I guess that it will need to balance being close to the window to minimize the IR light impact vs. being far enough away to allow for swiveling the width of the camera body distance from the glass?
Would be quite interesting to have a full video of a traffic stop (and imagine what that could mean for searches, assuming they don't know that it's there/on).
half_life1052
Regular Member
The unit in the link (I just opened the package) has a menu option to turn off the IR LEDs.
When you get it up and running it would be great if you could post vids of with and without the IR.
half_life1052
Regular Member
Will do. I had planned on running it in all recording modes with and without IR on the dash and in a dark environment just to get a feel for its limitations.
cyras21
Regular Member
Leave the car running. Some of the cams have an option to continue running for a period of time afterwards. Also, something to consider, the voice recorder on these are pretty good. Without rotating mine, you can hear anything and everything spoken at the window.
half_life1052
Regular Member
This camera seems to have that capability. I won't swear to it until I see it work. BTW the camera is battery powered so it will run for a period of time without external power.
yes, but, if you've been running it using the 12v the camera turns off when you turn the 12v supply off. I found this out today and that works well for me because some of the places I go have restrictions on video recording and photography. They don't ban you having them, just won't let you use them, but it means all I have to do is pull the plug out the socket on the dash and the camera is off, plug it back in and it starts recording again.
here's a short clip of footage I filmed just yesterday. The vehicle the camera was in is not small, no one can say they couldn't see it
[video=youtube;ve73YRnB528]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve73YRnB528&feature=youtu.be[/video]
For the record, let me mention I was driving an 18 wheel tractor trailer tank truck fully loaded with gasoline (about 8 and a half thousand gallons of flammable liquid), NOT the kind of vehicle you want to cause an accident with. The van driver could see what I was driving. However, what he obviously couldn't see was the video camera mounted at the top of my windshield. The reason he swerved back to the left lane is because the truck is equipped with a LOUD airhorn.
The van is marked as belonging to a company called AirPro Mechanical in Richmond Virginia. This company's vehicles project an image to the public. I am the public, I now have a bad image of that company. That image is of workers who do not pay attention to what is happening. If he isn't paying attention while he's driving, just how much attention is he paying when working on equipment he's supposed to be installing or servicing? Would you want them working on anything of yours?
Yes there is construction on the left shoulder ahead of the van BUT that does not give him the right to try to bully his way in front of me, instead he should SLOW DOWN to pass the construction safely.
[video=youtube;ve73YRnB528]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve73YRnB528&feature=youtu.be[/video]
For the record, let me mention I was driving an 18 wheel tractor trailer tank truck fully loaded with gasoline (about 8 and a half thousand gallons of flammable liquid), NOT the kind of vehicle you want to cause an accident with. The van driver could see what I was driving. However, what he obviously couldn't see was the video camera mounted at the top of my windshield. The reason he swerved back to the left lane is because the truck is equipped with a LOUD airhorn.
The van is marked as belonging to a company called AirPro Mechanical in Richmond Virginia. This company's vehicles project an image to the public. I am the public, I now have a bad image of that company. That image is of workers who do not pay attention to what is happening. If he isn't paying attention while he's driving, just how much attention is he paying when working on equipment he's supposed to be installing or servicing? Would you want them working on anything of yours?
Yes there is construction on the left shoulder ahead of the van BUT that does not give him the right to try to bully his way in front of me, instead he should SLOW DOWN to pass the construction safely.
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cyras21
Regular Member
nice clear vid. did you turn the microphone off of does your's not have one?
i had it turned off thinking it would save file space by not having to include sound .. had a voice recorder in my pocket anyway.
jwaldo
Regular Member
So what do I do with....
So, I got my camera on the dash, driving down the road. Red light, I stop second in line. Car in front of me shows every sign of being impatient and, sure enough, idiot runs the red light and continues down the road.
I have a good video, license plate number, and pretty good picture of the driver looking around (I think both for cross traffic and to check there was no LE behind).
Kind of torqued me off that this bozo was so blatant.
Question. Can I do anything with the video?
Will LE take it and follow up?
Can I take this bozo to court? (assuming I can connect the license plate number with a name and address)
Or, should I just let out a long sigh and record over it?
Thanks,
Jim.
So, I got my camera on the dash, driving down the road. Red light, I stop second in line. Car in front of me shows every sign of being impatient and, sure enough, idiot runs the red light and continues down the road.
I have a good video, license plate number, and pretty good picture of the driver looking around (I think both for cross traffic and to check there was no LE behind).
Kind of torqued me off that this bozo was so blatant.
Question. Can I do anything with the video?
Will LE take it and follow up?
Can I take this bozo to court? (assuming I can connect the license plate number with a name and address)
Or, should I just let out a long sigh and record over it?
Thanks,
Jim.
some examples without using the IR lights (1)
This first one is when the light is fading, it's about 6.15pm yesterday headed east on US 60 between Cumberland & Powhatan.
[video=youtube;PyRZQs9kT8k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyRZQs9kT8k&feature=youtu.be[/video]
This first one is when the light is fading, it's about 6.15pm yesterday headed east on US 60 between Cumberland & Powhatan.
[video=youtube;PyRZQs9kT8k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyRZQs9kT8k&feature=youtu.be[/video]
some examples without using the IR lights (2)
The second is about 30 minutes later still on US 60 but a little closer to Richmond. Nothing of any note happens in either of the clips, I'm just posting as examples of what the video looks like.
[video=youtube;mHPIkPX5cTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHPIkPX5cTc&feature=youtu.be[/video]
I did learn that a 32GB card is not large enough to last all day when running for an entire shift. Luckily though I had enough in Best Buy reward certificates that a class 10 64GB card only cost me $18 out of pocket with free shipping
The second is about 30 minutes later still on US 60 but a little closer to Richmond. Nothing of any note happens in either of the clips, I'm just posting as examples of what the video looks like.
[video=youtube;mHPIkPX5cTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHPIkPX5cTc&feature=youtu.be[/video]
I did learn that a 32GB card is not large enough to last all day when running for an entire shift. Luckily though I had enough in Best Buy reward certificates that a class 10 64GB card only cost me $18 out of pocket with free shipping
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Looking good Scouser!
You're not a cop Jim.
Put it on Youtube if you have to do something with it but he didn't hurt anything, it's none of your business and if you try to get LEA to look at it, you'll find out just how little they care fast.
Yes, you can "take this bozo to court" and in fact I have successfully done this multiple times and you don't have to be LEO. HOWEVER, in my situation things were different. In Virginia you can simply go to the magistrate and swear out a complaint. But I believe your challenge/problem in this situation is that while you have the license plate, you do not have the identity of the person driving the vehicle.
In my situations it involved my duties within neighborhood watch, and I knew the identities -- had positive recognition of them and could swear to that. I had video of their actions to prove that out. When it came time for court in more than one situation they (through their lawyer) tried to make the case that firstly they didn't do it because they weren't driving their car then, and secondly even if they were driving that car they didn't do what I claimed. The way that the judge handled it was to ask them to explain who then was driving the car, as they were the legal owners of it and they hadn't reported it stolen. Once he got them to the "okay, it was probably me driving" that was covered. Then I had produced still photographs from the video that I had sitting down in the court house lock-up boxes (at the entrance for things you can't bring in to the court house). They were nice photos, and pretty hard to dispute, and I offered to the Judge to simply go get my video and player and bring it into court, if the Judge requested it and told the security folks to allow me to bring it in. At that point the Judge made it clear to the defense attorney that **if** he had to go to that extent that things would go badly for the defendants....who then suddenly decided to stop arguing.
Okay, that's background. The process is you go to the magistrate, swear out a complaint that includes the license plate number. The magistrate then issues a request to the police to run the plate, and the name of the owner of the vehicle is then added to the complaint, and then that name is added to the complaint. But the magistrate would walk you through what "this is" meaning, running a red light vs. reckless driving vs. whatever, based on your description and probably based on you showing the magistrate the video. On court day you would have to provide testimony, and you'd probably want stills from the video and have the video sitting and waiting. The downside is that you have to take your time to do this -- and it was typical for me to have to end up making at least several trips to court for each case (continuances, and other unexpected issues that come up in traffic court). And of course you may well have a Judge who doesn't get established who the driver was. And in my situation, at times I even had police witnesses (which was sad as they then had to explain to the Judge why they didn't ticket themselves), and had senior LEOs testify about my character (goes to my not making the charges up and such) and diligence in working to support the neighborhood watch program. You would likely be standing there alone, possibly facing a defense attorney on the other side of things, and just to make it fun the Judge almost certainly will not let you ask questions, etc. (you get to address the Judge alone, you're a witness on behalf of the Commonwealth in filing the complaint....but if you're careful when you make your statement to the Judge, you can plant lots of seeds to counter what you know the defense is probably going to try to claim/do).
I am NOT an attorney, so all the disclaimers apply. But I have done this quite a few times, and I have actually been successful on each and every time. All in all things went well, one time it was reduced charges for them. But in my situation, it made the "point" in that they had to pay for an attorney and paid some sort of fine and it hit their DMV record. I've never had to take the same person to court more than once.
I would think that in your situation you'd have to decide whether you want to go through all of that for a guy running a red light. In my situation it was part of "fixing" neighborhood problems. I can't say that they were "enjoyable" experiences, I did it simply because I felt like I had little choice (situations were getting really out of hand).
That seems pretty good for no IR! Not having one (yet) one question -- is turning on the IR as simple as flipping an easy to access switch, or does it require you to dismount the camera. I'm wondering about being able to turn it on if something significant develops.
Another pondering -- with the IR on, are they readily visible from in front? Meaning a lot, or hard to notice. I don't know off hand if Virginia is one of those states but some states I believe have laws about not showing any red light projecting from the front of the car.
.
You're right Dan, you don't have to be a LEO and you can go to the magistrate.
So now with our $25.00 dash cams, a new breed of super hero will arise to combat the forces of evil:lol:
Speeders beware!
.
You're right Dan, you don't have to be a LEO and you can go to the magistrate.
So now with our $25.00 dash cams, a new breed of super hero will arise to combat the forces of evil:lol:
Speeders beware!
Don't get me wrong -- I agree with your sentiment....I'm not advocating that, just simply answering the question.
As I said, in my situation it was very different and was personal and it was attacks upon my family and neighbors. I wouldn't waste my time on something like someone running a red light, or a thousand other stupid things we all see everyday on the roads.