Lincolnshire dangerous driving dashcam submissions increase

Operation Snap was launched in Lincolnshire in February 2021.

A scheme which allows people to send dashcam footage of bad driving to police is receiving up to 170 reports a month, councillors have been told.

Operation Snap was launched in Lincolnshire in February 2021.

The number of submissions rose from just 30 a month when it started to 170 a month by December 2022, with 1,722 dashcam clips sent in last year.

Of those, 566 resulted in a notice of intended prosecution and 514 warning letters were sent out to motorists.

Steve Batchelor, from Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, told Lincolnshire County Council's highways committee that offences ranged from dangerous driving to failing to stop at traffic lights.

He said warning letters were used in some cases because the police were not present when the alleged offences were being committed and there was "quite a high evidential threshold required" to take cases to court.

"It might not meet that threshold," he said, "but somebody still needs to have a warning at least to make clear to them that somebody else felt that [their]driving was bad enough to go and submit footage, fill out a witness statement, and be prepared to go to court with it."

Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership said one of the main reported offences was overtaking on solid white lines

Mr Batchelor said that one of the main reported offences was overtaking on solid white lines, which had "led to a significant number of people being killed and seriously injured over the years".

"We're not looking for just any and every offence, we really want to ensure that this is something where some of the most serious offences that would have otherwise had no action whatsoever are seen to as well," he added.