Near Miss of the Day 697: Close pass driver overtakes without crossing white line — police action confirmed

In this case as a warning letter is the only action they would presumably not object as it couldn't prejudice any trial. In any case, it's the most pathetic excuse imaginable for NFA, any close pass will be dealt with in a magistrate's court at best so the question of prejudicing a jury does not arise. It's a transparent avoidance mechanism. To be fair to the Met, I've never removed footage from social media and they've never refused to act because of it.

given the Met frequently use footage shot and broadcast on national tv and around the globe sometimes, in prosecutions and dont seem to have any issue with, theyd probably struggle to square that circle if they did go down that route.

its one of those things I wish would get challenged in court to stop the police using it as an excuse though, the best you can do is maybe dont tell them in the future what you intend to do with the footage first.

Awavey wrote:

given the Met frequently use footage shot and broadcast on national tv and around the globe sometimes, in prosecutions and dont seem to have any issue with, theyd probably struggle to square that circle if they did go down that route.

its one of those things I wish would get challenged in court to stop the police using it as an excuse though, the best you can do is maybe dont tell them in the future what you intend to do with the footage first.

Yes, this will probably be my future course of action, but I genuinely don't want to jeopardise an investigation, for obvious reasons.

That's if they don't just NFA everything from me now.....

That's if they don't just NFA everything from me now.....

They will NFA anything they think they have the slightest chance of getting away with. It doesn't matter to them how stupid the proffered reason is. They rely on most people losing heart and not taking it further, and the fact that there is no effective internal monitoring of officers' decisions. 

wtjs wrote:

That's if they don't just NFA everything from me now.....

They will NFA anything they think they have the slightest chance of getting away with. It doesn't matter to them how stupid the proffered reason is. They rely on most people losing heart and not taking it further, and the fact that there is no effective internal monitoring of officers' decisions. 

Very possible. It's also hard to say whether they have ever taken action, although other conversations with more sympathetic officers would suggest otherwise.

It's also hard to say whether they have ever taken action, although other conversations with more sympathetic officers would suggest otherwise

The more sympathetic officers could resolve at least part of the uncertainty by, to reiterate what I wrote below, not writing deliberately ambiguous 'action letters' which leave it open to them to take no action at all. You know what they say in Full Metal Jacket: You can Talk the Talk, but can you Walk the Walk?

Awavey wrote:

given the Met frequently use footage shot and broadcast on national tv and around the globe sometimes, in prosecutions and dont seem to have any issue with, theyd probably struggle to square that circle if they did go down that route.

its one of those things I wish would get challenged in court to stop the police using it as an excuse though, the best you can do is maybe dont tell them in the future what you intend to do with the footage first.

My thoughts exactly, when has anyone ever got off on the basis that their crime was seen on national TV, and yet a few people seeing a share on Twitter could prejudice a result?

Captain Badger wrote:

Having initially said they'd take unspecified action, they then used this as a reason to NFA both submissions.

That sounds really petty of them.

Just tried the Nextbase portal for Lancs:

https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/

"Thank you for using the Nextbase National Dash Cam Safety Portal. The force you have chosen is working hard towards being fully ready to accept dash cam footage and expects to have this ready shortly. However, you can still use this portal to generate a full witness statement and upload your video. Please be aware that once this has been completed you need to contact your local force by email or by calling 101 . The witness statement can be printed or emailed to your local police force to speed up the process of reporting the incident."

Thanks, but whatever Nextbase claims isn't true as regards Lancashire Constabulary. Lancahire's online incident reporting system won't do anything about 'moving traffic' incidents either- one can report anything there but it's just a supermassive black hole from which no response ever emerges now, and never did before.