Drivers can now submit dashcam footage online

Gloucestershire Police is encouraging members of the public to submit their dashcam footage online to improve safety on the county's roads.

The force is one of the latest to take part in Operation Snap, with a dedicated officer reviewing submitted footage.

It said around 25-30 per cent of all dashcam footage submitted in Gloucestershire leads to fixed penalty notices being issued, or an educational course.

Robert Vestey, head of the non-crime unit, said: "It's simple, it's very effective and it allows us to educate as well as prosecute where we need to."

Nationally, the police have received 24,000 dashcam footage submissions in the last six months, with a Gloucestershire officer dealing with more than 140 submissions per month.

Mr Vestey said dashcam footage is an "emerging way" of dealing with dangerous drivers "over the last three to four years".

"Quite often they don't even realise how bad their driving has been, so it allows use to work with them and just improve the safety on Gloucestershire's roads," he said.

Many drivers now have dashcams fitted

"The footage itself has got to prove the offence," Mr Vestey added.

"There are some offences though that are so bad they would immediately go to court, and others that the public think are an offence but they're not, so we need to try and find a way of educating people on that."

The footage also has "to show that the driver or rider is being inconvenienced in some way".

"We get a lot of images sent in from cyclists, and in the Highway Code you have something called a close pass, where you should allow cyclists 1.5m width, but a close pass itself isn't an offence and a lot of cyclists don't realise that so they get quite frustrated with us," Mr Vestey added.

Going forward, Mr Vestey would like "advisory letters" to be sent out, detailing the Highway Code and the law.