Dashcam Courts
When I’m driving, I set my cruise control to the speed
limit and take my foot off the accelerator. And I get passed by EVERYONE. Maybe our speed limits are too low. Maybe we’re overly cautious. Maybe technology has made faster speeds safer. But as long as we have a democracy, and as long as we elect representatives to implement our values in laws, I’m going to follow them, and I think everyone should do so. If you want faster speed limits, write your state Representative. Some laws will be controversial, and a free and open debate is the way to deal with them. But there’s one place where I think we can achieve consensus: Traffic violations caught on camera — especially on dashboard cameras, or “dash-cams.”
People commit crimes because they think they won’t be caught. We can change that with a single law. People only follow traffic laws when they’re being watched by a police car. That’s so 20 years ago. Surveillance permits a level of verification that can ensure the innocent are protected and the guilty are punished. Video is irrefutable proof. Once the authorities have that proof in hand, consequences should be swift and certain. Speeding, red light runners, hit and run accidents, can and should be documented and used as evidence. The damage they can cause is a good enough reason to rein them in. But it goes beyond that.
When someone roars down the road in front of my house with their engine roaring — especially if they’re on a motorcycle — they don’t do it because they’re in a hurry. They’re bullies. They’re letting us all know they like scaring us, and there’s not a thing we can do about it. They open holes in their mufflers, or remove them altogether. When a police car is in sight, they keep the noise down, because the police have a monopoly on documenting illegal behavior and doing something about it. That needs to change. There are 11,000 officers working for the California Highway Patrol. There are about 121,000 police in total in the state. But there are nearly 15 million cars on the road in our state, and every one of them is potentially a reliable witness of traffic crime. Running red lights, brake-checking, changing lanes without signaling, and other infractions are easy to document with a dashcam and the Internet.
But wait, there’s more: Your dashcam already knows how fast you’re driving; once LIDAR is built into your dashcam (as it is into the new iphone 13), we can even document the speed of the car that just passed you. Add a microphone that measures and records the decibel level of the passing motorcycle as well as its distance from your camera, and you have the evidence needed to fine these cretins $100 per violation, 100 times a day.
Ask your state representative to introduce a bill creating “Dashcam Courts” in which video evidence is the only standard of proof, and anyone can email it in. Letting perps wait until the police have left the area to commit traffic crimes creates a mentality that’s damaging to the way of life we claim to believe in. Let’s deputize EVERYONE.
Noise is a crime. We have laws on our books that are rarely if ever enforced. In California, Health and Safety Code 46000 says in part: “... (f) All Californians are entitled to a peaceful and quiet environment without the intrusion of noise which may be hazardous to their health or welfare.” But if the perps stay quiet until the county mountie is out of hearing range, what can be done?
We can change that. I want these jerks to be as intimidated by us as we are by them. I want them to consider every single driver or pedestrian in sight as someone who might cost them money. I want them to pay for their bullying every single time. I want them to hate what we’re doing to them as much as we hate what they’re doing to us. Maybe then they’ll get it.
Democracy is a beautiful ideal, but only if we use it to create a better world. I can’t think of anyone who would oppose the notion of Dashcam Courts. Write the Recorder if you don’t like the idea. That would be a great topic for public debate. It’s as close to Good Versus Evil as anything I can think of.