Yeah, lots of bone headed crap around here. I see it all the time and this is why I am interested. The thought of having an empty decoy or memory card with old footage crossed my mind. Oops. It stopped recording for some reason.
Plead the Fifth.
Well, recording LEOs in action is definitely against the law in MA. MA wiretapping laws have been used to cite offenders and it has the distinction of being the only state to uphold those citations in a court of law. There have been a few higher profile examples in the last couple of years with people recording arrests using cell phones. They were hauled off and charged. I’m completely against such limitations but it is what it is…
If I’m not mistaken the law extends to recording anyone without their express permission- like a phone call for example.
^So no ATM cameras, bar cameras, parking lot cameras? No anti-shoplifitng cameras? Heck, most people are probably caught on camera a half dozen times a day without knowing it.
My local county court has a “no electronic devices” sign up to discourage photographs within the building. Some disposable cameras have nothing but a spring-loaded shutter. Hmmm…
Hey, do what the Russians do! If you get into an interesting wreck you can sell the video to a cable TV content provider for good money!
I work on computers and offer forensic data recovery as one of my services so I understand that simply “deleting” something doesn’t mean it is gone. I know that secure erasing any type of flash memory pretty much renders that data unrecoverable but I also don’t know what might be possible with the right technology. I just bought a name brand 32GB MicroSD card for $17 shipped. It is a Samsung and supports decent read and write speeds. It isn’t top of the line but is by no means cheap junk either. My method of “deleting” such a card would be to crush it and then melt it with a cigarette lighter. This would be forever and it is only a $17 card.
I think one of the big things about electronic devices in court is also so that cell phones aren’t constantly going off in the court room. I saw this happen one time and the Judge didn’t take too kindly to this happening. I don’t know if he was brought up on contempt or not but you could tell he was a low-life.
I have seen some crazy Russian dash cam videos. The one that really sticks in my mind was some guy who went out drinking with a friend. They crashed on the way home and the passenger was killed. Somehow the driver was unhurt and continued to drive. Basically the back half of the car was turned at a 90 degree angle to the front and the car looked like it had been through the crusher. The only things that weren’t destroyed were the critical things in the engine bay that allowed the car to run and the drivers seat. Somehow the fuel lines and wiring from the tank appear to have been intact. The car and driver were just driving down the road like this was completely normal. It actually drove pretty well considering it resembled a pile of scrap metal and the driver was trashed, plus the back end of the car was being dragged down the road. I seem to remember this being a Toyota of some sort, either a Corolla or Camry.
I’ve thought about getting a dashboard camera for my car, but I don’t do it because it seems like a strange choice to invite Big Brother into my life more than he is already.
@meanjoe75fan
No, those methods/intended uses are not restricted:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/06/massachusetts_wiretap_law_expl.html
Look up “Drunk Driver Drives Destroyed Corolla” on Google for the one I was talking about. I would post the direct link but that always seems to get filtered. I guess this is to prevent spam here. This is unbelievable. I have heard about similar incidents on Indian Reservations in the SW USA where people flip their car, throwing out passengers, and just keep driving completely unaware of what happened.
I don’t think a LEO would have any problems with a dash cam during a typical traffic stop since it would not be pointed at them. I would not recommend sticking a cell phone cam in their face. I have been pulled over twice in the last 35 years but can advise on traffic stop etiquette. Stay in the vehicle. Keep hands in plain sight. Follow instructions. Have license, registration, and proof of insurance readily available. Keep your mouth shut unless asked a question. If the LEO is in error regarding the law, posted speed, traffic signal, etc. Save it for court. Occasionally our state legislator idiots pass a totally senseless and unneeded law to give the impression they are actually doing something. The media then reports it completely in error and LEOs issue incorrect citations. When I am informed/misinformed of a new law that does not make sense I download and actually read the law. Two examples in the last few years were 20mph speed limit in school zones 24/7/365 during an all time low of citations/accidents in school zones. The idiot that initiated this law stated that existing law was too confusing. When I read the new law it was 100 times more confusing! It was repealed one year later. The second was reported by the media as requiring drivers to wait for pedestrians to reach the far curb before proceeding. When I read the law it required drivers to wait for pedestrians crossing from their side to proceed 1/2 way across the second lane before proceeding and those crossing from the other side of the street be more than 2 lanes away. They expect morons who can’t figure out what a red, yellow, or green light means to understand this! Again there was no increase in vehicle pedestrian accidents to justify this nonsense.
Stay in the vehicle. Keep hands in plain sight. Follow instructions. Have license, registration, and proof of insurance readily available.
If at night I also turn on the interior light, They like it when they can see if there are any threats to them.
When asked for the registration and license, you should lower the window a few inches to hand them out. If asked to get out of the car, lock the doors behind you.
@Whitey
It’s not big brother you have to worry about as much in your storage. It’s hackers and sellers of information who work for “big sellers” and corporations and the criminal element who stop at nothing to get an economic edge. Just look a where your personal information on your computer ends up…it’s there first loooong before big bro gets into the act.
I think dash cams have worthwhile uses, totally depended upon your situation. I like it on delivery vans, public transportation and areas of high crime and security for frequent travelers but would love to see recordable “back up cams” we already have that I can activate to catch those fn tailgaters. I want these son of a b’s on record for the danger they create to the rest of the driving public. Rear end collisions are the most frequent of all and recordable back up cams that flashed a yellow light when recording in the face of those who do it, should be a big incentive to back off. So, that is where my priority lies.
I don’t know about lower priced options, but the GoPro camera is almost a standard for youtubers to use when they’re walking around filming things.
Amazing what the “little guy” can do now!
all one needs to make a video is a cell phone and a movie editor. But one needs content to make a GOOD video…sometimes.
I done one here awhile back using nothing more than my iphone 5 and imovie on my laptop o do the slow motion in it.
Speaking of traffic stops . . .
several years ago, the highway patrol pulled me over on the freeway
I won’t go into too much detail, but it could have gone either way, meaning guilty, or let the guy go with a warning
Anyways, I kept my hands in plain sight, produced all the requested paperwork, and was extremely polite. I addressed the officers as sir and ma’am, as they were a man and a woman. I answered all their questions, and they let me go with a warning.
I believe if I hadn’t shown them the respect they deserve, they would have hauled me in