West Midlands Police has thanked cyclists and drivers for submitting 640 videos of alleged dangerous or careless driving in September, with “action taken against hundreds of careless and dangerous drivers thanks to your footage”.
The force encouraged road users to continue to tackle road danger by submitting evidence, stressing that officers “can’t be everywhere all the time” and that third-party reporting will make “motorists think twice about the standard of their driving, and that could well save lives”.
In September, the force received 640 submissions through its online reporting portal, with 416 cases (65 per cent) resulting in “action”, a broad term stretching from warning letters to court appearances and points and fines.
In total, 55 drivers (nine per cent) were ordered to appear at court in relation to driving seen in submitted footage, while 122 (19 per cent) were handed fixed-penalty notices.
The numbers come at the end of a summer which began with West Midlands Police admitting that it needed to review how reports were managed after reporting by this website, supported by an FOI request by Chris Smith, found that of 286 reports of careless, inconsiderate, or dangerous driving around cyclists considered by West Midlands Police in 2022, only one resulted in a prosecution.
At the time, the force said it needed to adapt to the “50 per cent increase in third-party reporting” it had experienced, with each report taking an average of 60 minutes to be assessed. 213 of the submissions in 2022 resulted in no further action, while 69 were offered a National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) course as an alternative to prosecution.
The FOI request also showed that 5,551 submissions of video evidence relating to potential driving offences were received by West Midlands Police in 2022, over 2,000 more than the number submitted in 2020, and almost 1,800 more than in 2021.
Noting the increase in numbers this year, West Midlands Police said the 640 submissions received in September was a “big rise” on the 557 from August and 325 in July, demand met by the force “increasing the resources in the Traffic Investigations Unit” responsible for processing third-party footage.
The force also released a video containing examples of real-world submissions that warranted action, one clip showing a close pass of cyclists that earned a driver three penalty points and a fine of £100, another captured by a cyclist showing a driver run a red light, an incident treated with the same punishment.
People are sick of reckless driving in their communities and now there’s thousands more eyes + ears to help combat it via dash or helmet cam reporting.
Here’s a snapshot of the 416 incidents where action was taken by @WMPolice in September 23.https://t.co/1uAiiZG06k #OpTriton pic.twitter.com/xIk6Mj2xbo
— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) October 21, 2023
Tanya Johnson, the head of the police-led prosecution team, thanked the public for the “great response to the bolstering of the team” and said “road users who send us footage say they’re pleased with the results and the feedback given”.
“We’ve got a vital role to play in keeping the roads safe, but we can’t be everywhere all the time,” she said. “That’s why it’s great that we’re getting so many clips in. In more than 140 cases last month, we didn’t need to issue points, fines or court action, but offered education and advice to drivers.
> Here’s what to do if you capture a near miss, close pass or collision on camera while cycling
“That will make those motorists think twice about the standard of their driving, and that could well save lives. Of the submissions that our team wasn’t able to act on, many were because they didn’t actually include video evidence, they showed crimes which needed to be investigated separately, or they showed incidents outside the West Midlands Police area. So I want people to have confidence that we will act in every case that we can.”
West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter said it was “reassuring” to see the increase in submissions being met with more police action.
“I’m a big believer that the portal can be a strong force for good in road safety; people are sick of reckless and bad driving in their communities and now there’s thousands more eyes and ears supporting our mission to make our roads safer,” he said.
After three cyclists and pedestrians lost their lives on Birmingham’s roads in May, West Midlands Police announced a “relentless enforcement of the rules of the road” in a crackdown on dangerous driving.
In the aftermath of the fatalities, Tranter urged authorities to “turn the tide on aggressive driving in Birmingham”.
48 thoughts on “Police call for more camera footage submissions as force celebrates “action taken against hundreds of careless and dangerous drivers””
I saw a lot of dangerous
I saw a lot of dangerous stuff as a driver and it was easy enough to report – largely because it was easy enough to mount front and rear cameras to my car.
I am less sure of what cameras to use when cycling and where to mount them. I am not keen on helmet cameras – I do not fancy having one driven through my helmet into my skull should I come off.
Any advice?
I run Cycliq Fly CE12 and Fly
I run Cycliq Fly CE12 and Fly 6Gen 3. Fly12 sits under the front mount (Garmin on top) and Fly6 is either on the seatpost or the rear rack.
I’ve found that both front and rear cameras are needed. Some of the shittest driving involves some clown entering a roundabout when I’m already on it with priority. I normally have to swerve to avoid the twat and that throws the camera viewpoint away from the vehicle. However, the rear camera normally picks up the close pass and numberplate.
They aren’t cheap, but
They aren’t cheap, but possibly the best dedicated cameras are the Cycliq ones – the Fly6 for the rear and the Fly 12 for the front.
They have the advantage of built in lights too … but using the lights reduces the battery life.
My Fly6 Gen 3 has a battery life (camera only) of around 3hrs 45 and the front (camera only) of around 6 hours … although this seems to vary abit.
The Fly6 doesn’t like getting excessively wet, so mounting on the seat post, under the seat is a good idea (mine is swapped between a pannier mount and the offside seat stay due to a Garmin radar light.
The Fly 12 can be mounted on the handlebars, or if you have one, a bar mounting on your fork (if you go fork mounted then put it on the offside)
There are plenty of other cameras out there for less cost, but you need to weigh up what you are using it for … if you want short, HD action style videos, then go with a GoPro. Want to flim your whole ride… go with the Cycliq.
Side note … Cycliq seem to have paid attention to device survival in the event of a crash … the memory cards are encased in an Al frame and should survive most impacts.
Chances of coming off X.
Chances of coming off X. Chances that the camera will not shear off Y.
Chances of both X*Y.
Chances of being left hooked or T boned Z
I would say Z is a bit higher.
I have Tooo Cycling DVR80’s
I have Tooo Cycling DVR80’s front and rear (they are meant to be rear only, so I just taped over the red LED for the front one). Front one on handlebar, rear one on seatpost or rack. 8 hour battery life. Video quality is fine in daylight, though they tend to not pick up reg numbers in the dark.
I’ve got a go-pro on a chest
I’ve got a go-pro on a chest mount.
I did have it under my cycle computer, which to be fair did look a bit better. But I found that unless the conditions were nice and bright there was too much jiggle to get a clear image of what was going on. Even with their excellent image stabilisation.
The other bonus of the chest is that you can see the bars and my arms so you get a sense of quite how close some of the passes are. Can also hear what I’m saying (which isn’t always suitable for broadcast)
On the whole, 90+% of the ones I submit have some sort of action.
“……with each report
“……with each report taking an average of 60 minutes to be assessed.”
An hour?! Most of the ones I’ve seen would take five minutes at most.
Great that they are responding to increased reporting of dangerous drivers by increasing resources and asking for more.
eburtthebike wrote:
Interesting number.
In the Op SNAP early days they used to quote 15 minutes – perhaps that was for only part of the process.
Weren’t WMP the ones who
Weren’t WMP the ones who declined to deal with some blatant close pass videos recently? Or am I mixing them up with another lot.
stonojnr wrote:
Yes – but since then they have reviewed and increased resource.
Cold comfort to anyone who
Cold comfort to anyone who had a submission dismissed from their lack of resource.
We’ll see if WMP keep it up.
Grass, snitch, get a life.
Grass, snitch, get a life.
Hirsute wrote:
Guilty as charged ?
What ! Snitches get stitches.
What ! Snitches get stitches.
If witnesses give in to the
If witnesses give in to the intimidation that this quote implies then the whole justice system collapses
I haven’t got stitches (yet?)
I haven’t got stitches (yet?) but I do get a sense of satisfaction that I’m helping to make my local roads a little safer for vulnerable road users, and occasionally just a little smugness too.
That’s just the line that
That’s just the line that appears regularly on twitter. Strangely when the poster is asked about what they would like to see happen if their house was being burgled, car stolen or family member mugged, they go very quiet.
Hirsute wrote:
I guessed you were being sarcastic, although I’m sure that sentiment has been expressed here before quite genuinely by some others. ?
I don’t like the snitching
I don’t like the snitching aspect of this but laws exist because people can’t be trusted to do the right thing. If the possibility of me having a camera on the bike (I don’t, but have one in my car) makes idiot drivers think twice then snitch away.
If people knew their driving “skills” were being watched all the time, how much better would their driving be?
I have no issue with the
I have no issue with the snitching. Not even slightly. The roads would run far more smoothly if they weren’t inhabilited by such utter bellends. The reason our motorways are a nightmare to drive on is because of bad driving 80% of the time. Its not due to sheer weight of traffic, its the knob that got stuck doing 65 in the middle lane when they want to be doing 67 so they pull out into the outside lane and sit there at 67 for a few miles while traffic concertinas up behind them.
Its the middle lane sitters who can be on an empty motorway and still wouldn’t consider being anywhere else.
Its the people who see that they will be queueing 50m down the road but won’t let people out of side roads.
If people were better, safer drivers I believe that that they would also be more courteous and relaxed behind the wheel which would be better for everyone. The only way the average shit driver is going to get better though is through fear or losing their license or fear of getting a whacking great fine in the post.
Considering the stupid rules around speedcameras having to be as obvious as a lighthouse and the volume of dashcams in peoples hands we really should be encoraging the reporting of awful driving.
On the M25 it is worse as
On the M25 it is worse as with 4 lanes you get morons doing 65 in L3 with 2 empty lanes to their left. It’s safer to continue in L1 to get past them than to get over to L4 to do it.
The only plus is the number of average speed cameras means there are fewer people trying to do a ton.
Maybe if people chilled out
Maybe if people chilled out abit more whilst driving, they’d be less worried about following traffic at 67mph on a road with a 70mph limit.
It’s a limit not a target speed.
Reiver2768 wrote:
It’s interesting to consider where the words “snitch” and “snitching” are most widely used, generally amongst the criminal fraternity to describe those who report them to the police for their crimes of robbery and murder et cetera. See also “grass”. If trying to stop people behaving in the most moronic and selfish fashion that threatens the well-being and sometimes the lives of others is “snitching” then it ceases to be a pejorative in my opinion.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Reporting one’s fellow citizens (or mere subjects) to the authorities is a difficult business to get to grips with in many circumstances. The key is the nature of the authority and the consequences they’ll wreak upon any miscreants so-reported.
Like you, I wouldn’t feel bad if reporting a nasty criminal act that was damaging to someone else (especially one powerless themselves to stop it) in a state that’s benign or supportive of all of its citizens. But …..
What if was East Germany of old? Or the utterly corrupt authorities of various US States? Or one of the various savage theocracies? Or ……
These days in Blighty, we’re in a Schrodinger’s cat situation. Many of our laws and authorities are remnants of perhaps fairer times and a more widely accepted justice – the rule of law. But many recent laws seem to be entirely for the profit and comfort of the 1% and against the interests of everyone else. And the breaking of many laws is ignored or trivialised by “the authorities” if they aren’t personally discomforted.
In short, when does the rule of law morph into the unjust suppression and persecution of the masses, along with a do-what-thou-wilt card for the supporters of the 1%?
The trouble is, there now seems to be a large range of behaviours that various groups believe to be just-reasons for ignoring the law. These include protestors against climate-change and pollution self immolations …. but also car loons desirous of complete freedumb to maim and kill without consequence.
One feels a large wave of anarchic confusion is engulfing us all. Snivelling power-pleasing snitch or righteous citizen stalwart seeking true justice? It seems to depend on which “us” you dentify with and which “them” you feel are the enemies within. And on the nature of “the authorities”.
Cugel wrote:
The key distinction is if the behaviour is dangerous to others, so reporting dangerous driving should be considered our civic duty, whilst seeing someone shoplifting food from a supermarket is far more of a grey area.
However, government propaganda can twist people’s ideas of what they consider to be dangerous, and thus pre-Nazi germans might have honestly thought that they were protecting people by reporting jewish people. Of course, as with Cruella Braverman’s rhetoric, an out-group (e.g. immigrants) is being blamed for the plight of our country, despite the far more obvious causes.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Sounds sensible. Maximise benefit to the greatest numbers etc.
So if I have this right … driving is the engine that powers the economy, and is “a lifeline” to many people. Drivers are propping up everyone else’s use of the roads (and much else) through road tax. Plus speed cameras, cash cow etc.
Cyclists on the other hand hold up necessary driving, cause pollution and don’t pay for anything. They’re a threat to people on foot. They’re getting simple-minded authorities to waste their cash on “bonkers” infra that no-one uses. Most insidiously they act as “useful idiots” for the Illuminati’s* plot to imprison us within 15 minute prisons.
So me being in the way of motor vehicles is dangerous to others … so I should report myself … for aggravated cycling. And on suspicion of not owning a motor vehicle and for possession of materials promoting active travel (a couple of extremist works by Pete Walker and Carlton Reid)?
* It could be the Velominati. Or the Green Party. Or the lizards. I’m a bit hazy on the details.
I wonder if this is slightly
I wonder if this is also slightly dialing up the pressure because of controversy around LTNs and 20mph limits?
Its good to see this but
Its good to see this but honestly it would need to be 10x more and the fines would need to be linked to wages. £100 is a joke.
I reckon that on my average journey on a bike I have a couple of close passes and a few dozen stupid overtakes i.e. people giving me plenty of room but overtaking on a blind bend.
Today I had a van coming down a road that was a single lane. He missed me by about 30cm because I swerved and he swerved. He was going far far far too fast and if I wasn’t on the far left of the road he would have hit me going at probably 30mph.
Every time I go on the motorway I would wager that there is probably an incident a minute in remotely busy trafic. People pulling in front of you when there is barely enough space for their car between you and the next car. People pull out and making you slam on your brakes. People swinging between lanes.
Bad driving is so normalised, the fines so small and the risk of being caught so minimal that its a joke.
mctrials23 wrote:
In Finland the fines for traffic offences is a proportion of income so never fails to be noticed and credible deterrent. This makes sense as a £500 fine is pocket change for the affluent Wank-Panzer [£70,000] owner. €1 Million fines have resulted for the automotively incompetent tech wizards.
The decision by Chief Police Officers in most devices to abolish their Traffic Division has had consequences. Rather than career specialists; Class 2, Class 1, Instructor, Examiner, most police officers have just the same DVSA Licence as the general public.
Highways Agency Road Traffic Officers have no objective beyond clearing the obstruction on Motorways so not what Traffic Officers used to do.
Unsurprisingly you get what you pay for..
Feel free to let your Police and Crime Commissioner know that road danger matters..
lonpfrb wrote:
This is very true. Once upon a time, Road Policing Units were very highly trained. They virtually disappeared after 2003 when the government decided that they were better deployed as armed response drivers (only a few), and road safety was given over to civilian camera operators working for so called “safety partnerships” on a huge pyramid scheme. These were pretty much the words of the police driving examiner who trained and passed me with the IAM.
Some years after that (2018), I got pulled over by a couple of chancers in uniform in what used to be described as a panda car, the reason was “I didn’t see your brake lights come on over that last roundabout.” I explained to them that was because I didn’t brake, I lifted off when I saw the circle of streetlights surrounding said roundabout 1/4 mile beforehand, there was nothing coming and proceeded safely across. I also explained that it’s what I was taught to do by a police examiner and that observation and mechanical sympathy such as that is safe, comfortable and efficient. They then started on my van, saying it was modified and possibly not insured correctly, I showed them a PDF of the insurance certificate detailing all the mods, when their colleague from inside the car said “come on, we’re leaving.”
You get what you pay for and I for one would welcome the return of the real traffic police, many people hated them but they knew what they were doing, the education part has been lost to enforcement, and latterly, there’s not much of that either.
Strewth – a sensible and
Strewth – a sensible and informative post from the Mark1! I offers my good regard for the sentiments and info expressed .. for what that regard is worth. 🙂
Personally I feel that the driving instructions and tests should all be at least of the quality given to them old-fashioned traffic polis, with retests at frequent intervals.
And that the polis resources devoted to proper policing of traffic be decided on, amongst other parameters, how many deaths and serious injuries are caused by the illegal behaviours involved. This would mean zero polis harassing protestors agin’ this and that and about half the force catching and dealing with dangerous drivers.
It might also mean that a special unit for catching and dealing with the degrading and deaths of many citizens caused by politicians and their nasty policies be set up and let loose in the halls of power & pvivilege. Evil landlords of fungus-infested rot-rooms too would be had-up. And Big Polluters R Us.
Things can change …. if we humans manage not to eliminate ourselves althogether by 2050, which solves all our prblems in a stroke, mind.
Cugel wrote:
Strewth! A positive comment from the Cugel! I offer my gratitude…
Agree, DVSA test should change, although maybe not at first at the level you describe, perhaps the currrent test as a “part 1” and then a year or two driving solo on (for example) P plates with restrictions on vehicle type, not unlike the old motorcycle parts 1 & 2, followed by full test (“part 2”) with appropriate training similar to the IAM scheme (based on the police blue book “Roadcraft”) to unlock a full licence. If you don’t pass that in (say) 2 years, you’re back on supervised L plates with a provisional.
With of course retests every 5(?) years.
Will never happen unfortunately though.
lonpfrb wrote:
Yep, will do…
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/nottinghamshire-police-boss-truly-sorry-7345712
…oh, maybe not worth while here
shoko wrote:
Yep, will do…
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/nottinghamshire-police-boss-truly-sorry-7345712
…oh, maybe not worth while here— lonpfrb
She’s “truly sorry” she got caught for the fifth time
That Twitter/X video is quite
That Twitter/X video is quite interesting.
If those decisions are replicated across to other forces then almost all of mine should have at least had fines.
I may take some stills from them and append them to my submissions so the officer viewing can see that other police forces have given points for lesser offences.
Agree with another poster that there is a huge amount of luck involved in some of the manouvers I see. A week or so ago it was literally 5 seconds that was between a dodgy overtake and a head on collision at a combined speed of 80mph.
Right hand curve to the road with no visibility up a steep hill (final section of Leith from Ockley) and a 4×4 shot past me. They literally just got back on the right side of the road and a car coming down the hill came past.
This morning going up Ranmore, several cars came past with lots of space but if anything was coming the other way would have had a nasty head on.
All for saving a few seconds…
That wouldn’t be the South
That wouldn’t be the South Yorkshire Police. According to a recent email to me, when trying to report a terrifying near miss on a roundabout, witnessed by a following bus (hence the reference to getting the dashcam/ CCTV footage) they will only invesitigate if there’s blood on the road (i.e. mine). Here’s what they wrote:
“We have not made any request for the CCTV and it is unlikely that we will given that no collision actually took place which is why no crash report was taken at the station. In cases of near misses it would be for yourself to pursue otherwise South Yorkshire Police would have to deal with several thousand more incidents as these happen all the time.”
In their words, SYP won’t respond to near misses – they are indifferent to them, apparently, because they “happen all the time”. So, in SYP world, if something happens “all the time”, it is mundane rather than something to reduce. In other words, they have no interest in improving driving standards, notwithstanding the obvious impact this would have on the prevalence of accidents that do cause injury. They also seem to be encouraging me to become a vigilante…”it would be for yourself to pursue”.
Just to clarify, did you have
Just to clarify, did you have your own footage of the incident?
Inspector Kev left SYP then?
Inspector Kev left SYP then? Afterall he has reported lots of close passes on his cycle rides, or do they only count from Police Officers.
Maybe Road.cc can contact him about this response from them.
His twitter profile says:
His twitter profile says:
Chief Inspector Sheffield Response. Force lead for cycling
Not sure what force that equates to.
SYP is sheffield.
SYP is sheffield.
SYP won’t respond to near
SYP won’t respond to near misses – they are indifferent to them, apparently, because they “happen all the time”
The same as Lancashire Constabulary’s view of vehicles passing at speed through red traffic lights- ‘there are too many of them for us to bother with’
https://upride.cc/incident/t90jdt_audiwithcaravan_rljatspeed/
https://upride.cc/incident/fd67nej_bmw420_redlightcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/ye10aju_mini_redlightcross/
Bravo West Midlands Police
Bravo West Midlands Police for all the brilliant work in moving forward cycling safety. Sadly this positive effort is not reflected by Humberside Police whose Inspector Tinsley said that Humberside Police did not run Close Pass operations as it was considered too risky for its officers. I’ll leave readers to make their own deductions.
Worcestershire Police
Worcestershire Police Inspector stated something similar as well. Too dangerous to officers to get them to cycle in traffic on the roads, so they wouldn’t run CP operations themselves.
Worcestershire Police
Worcestershire Police Inspector stated something similar as well. Too dangerous to officers to get them to cycle in traffic on the roads, so they wouldn’t run CP operations
True!
It’s astonishing how many
It’s astonishing how many people are willing to ‘out’ themselves as swivel eyed loons, on social media.
Even more astonishing, are those who choose to do so on a police social media channel.
Truly scary
The red light jumping Volvo
The red light jumping Volvo SUV in the video was my report. I looked back because I heard them gunning it well after the light turned red and I love the way they showed the bit where I was shaking my head. They didn’t notify me of that one but in the last month or so they have updated me on almost all of my reports so things are definitely getting better at WMP. ?
EDIT; Having just read the story about the 8 year old pulled over by WMP for not wearing a helmet I fear I may have spoken too soon.
I thought it looked like your
I thought it looked like your setup and route.
Trantor posts the stats of
Trantor posts the stats of submission results in another tweet. The bit I hate (as most of my cycling used to take place on the WMP / Staff Police border) is “out of force submission”. I thought our laws (unlike the United States for example) are the same across all English Counties so WMP should be able to serve the same FPN’s etc whether it is in WMP or Staffordshire.