Originally Posted by
SactoDoug
I am glad you have a camera. I hope it works out for you.
I encourage everyone that commutes in traffic to get a camera. If anything ever happens to me, there will be at least one witness to what happened and that witness is attached to my helmet. It sees everything that I see and is as unbiased a witness as you can have. It will even win a debate against a law enforcement officer over what really happened.
Trust me, don't depend on a police report. The officer writing it may leave out critical details or even add statements to the report that work against you. The officer will interview you, and the other guy. The other guy will likely lie about everything. The the officer will write the report as to what they
think happened. The police report becomes the official record that cannot be countered by any eye witness except a video recording. That is why there is a very negative feeling in the law enforcement community about private citizens with cameras but that is a completely different subject.
Agreed, it will be so cool to let them lie through the gap of their teeth and then to see the surprise on their face when they discover they were taped on video.
Lately there's been lots of cases here in the Bay Area where video has influence the outcomes. Like those SF officer in the Tenderloin to the Bart police. Most of it was useable evidence. I hope this will be a wakeup call for motorist when they see that more cyclist now have camera.