One of the regular London video posters has successfully got his material used to prosecute a bus driver for running a red light. Amazingly the bus driver disputed the FPN and the case went to Court where he got an £800 fine plus costs, and the 3 points for RLJ.
This case succeeded because the cyclist called 101 and reported the incident as a crime, rather than going to TfL (as the principal client) to investigate (as they seem dreadfully inept at this).
Close on its heels comes news of a school, where volunteers have been trains and have FPN tickets to issue (and presumably the ability to collect fines) to deal with abuse by drivers using the road badly when kids are coming & going.
It suggests that we might gain a wider coverage of policing on serious traffic offences, by tapping in to a neighbourhood watch surveillance regime, but I see potential problems if FPN tickets are floating around, and enforcement (& conflict) transfers to a team of volunteers.
Perhaps the answer could be to have accreditation to provide video and photo evidence of traffic offences (parking, obstruction ref light running etc) with the accredited sources having basic training on the offences they can report on, with the required detail to accompany the evidence.
With the reports submitted in a form similar to that from an automated safety camera, it should be possible to process the details in the same way and issue FPN's and fines from the central Police system. Potentially increased enforcement without the major cost in Police resources to do this, and a managed 'team' of sources who would be recognised and also subject to checks - ensuring that the reporters are monitored to be entirely neutral and objective in making these reports.
Could it work?
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