Australian Police Open Snitch Portal For Drivers To Upload Dash Cam Footage Of Moving Violations

Low-key vigilantism is the new Crime Stoppers. I’m pretty ambivalent about this new law enforcement effort (with the emphasis on “lack of effort”), but this is how things are going in one part of Australia right now. Here’s Lewin Day writing for The Autopian with more details:

As covered by The Canberra Times, Australian Capital Territory police have created a new online portal to help crack down on traffic crimes. The department has called for the public to share dashcam videos of driving offences in order to dob in (i,e to snitch on) their fellow motorists.

The move has already netted significant results. Since the portal opened in May, police have received 132 reports and issued 25 traffic infringements in turn. ACT police have produced a compilation video, noting that over $7,000 in fines have been issued under the scheme. A further 35 drivers have received caution notices, while six matters are pending investigation.

In terms of law enforcement efficiency, going 25 for 132 is a pretty solid batting average. Sure, it’s only (re-checks maths) .189, but that’s well above the Mendoza Line when it comes to crime solving. Granted, this isn’t like solving murders or (lol) helping some poor taxpayer recover their stolen goods, but being able to issue 25 tickets without having to do much more than run a plate and attach a screenshot to a form letter sounds like a pretty good use of cop desk jockeys’ time.

Theoretically, turning dash cam-wielders into part time cops should free up officers to do the more important stuff, like handling violent crime and property theft. It’s up to anyone’s imagination whether this effort has re-routed supposedly scarce resources towards the more dangerous and damaging of criminal acts, but the original reporting from The Canberra Times contains a statement that demonstrates law enforcement officials are always willing to view a three-quarters glass as more than half-empty.

“Gone are the days where police need to be right there to be able to fine drivers for offences they commit on our roads,” said Mark Richardson, Officer in Charge of Road Policing Acting Inspector. 

“By using modern technology, and public support to send in footage of driving offences they observe on our roads, police are now able to utilise this footage to ensure drivers are held to account at all times. 

“While police are happy to see so many people are already using the online portal, we are very disappointed to see the volume of poor driving behaviour occurring daily. 

Thanks for all the input but thousands of drivers are still getting away with it on an everyday basis. That’s the position of OIC Richardson, an official entirely capable of looking a gift horse(power) in the mouth and bemoaning all the freebie tickets officers have been able to write up without leaving the comfort of their computer monitors.

As The Autopian noted, the Australian Capitol Territory Police have indeed released a greatest hits of sorts via YouTube, (re)capturing drivers in the act via submissions through the snitch line drop box (which may literally be a Dropbox). [You will likely need to click through to watch the video but maybe by press time, the denial of embedding might be lifted. We can only hope.]

And if you’re an American like me, you might be astounded by both the cost of the typical ticket (nothing less than $316 AUS is depicted in the video) and the ticky-tack nature of some of the fined infractions. Granted, we’re not able to see the entire captured video in this police clip show, but it appears some people have been fined for a few seconds of tailgating and one person got nailed with a fine for “crossing an unbroken line” when they did nothing more than move towards their missed turnoff spot in stopped traffic without impeding or even inconveniencing other drivers.

While I’m never one to encourage private surveillance to fill in the gaps of government surveillance, something like this seems kind of OK, even while recognizing it might encourage people to abandon their own safe driving to become freelance traffic cops. There’s not a driver in any land who hasn’t experienced several moments where they actually wished there was a cop in the vicinity. There are tons of bad drivers and probably at least as many people who could be good drivers, but pretend the laws simply don’t apply to them. And then there are Nissan Altima drivers, whose reputation not only proceeds them, but dangles from their severely damaged rear bumpers as they overtake semi-trucks on the shoulder before darting across four lanes of interstate to powerslide into the exit they could have taken at normal speed if they weren’t so obsessed with turning fast lanes into their own personal autobahns.

This is the digital equivalent of any crime tip line, albeit one that accepts video submissions. Hopefully, the low return rate on submissions means cops are vetting recordings carefully to prevent ticketing people for violations that didn’t actually happen. On the other hand, opening up a submission portal to the public can strain the same resources law enforcement is hoping to conserve. Bigots, vengeful dipshits, and the numerous crank callers of the internet are perfectly capable of turning this into something that consumes a lot of time and money without providing any measurable impact on public safety. “Be careful what you wish for” are the watchwords here. A few early wins could easily lead to an interminable string of losses.