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What is dangerous driving?
Dangerous driving includes but is not limited to:
- driving without due care and attention
- careless driving
- using a mobile phone handheld
- not wearing a seat belt
- contravening a red traffic light and
- contravening solid white lines
If there has been a serious physical or verbal act of violence following a driving incident report this to police on 131 444.
If the threat is happening now call Triple Zero (000).
Criteria for submitting dangerous driving footage
- Submissions must be in video format not screen shots or photos
- Ideally the date and time stamp on the video should be correct. Your witness statement must clearly state what time/date the incident occurred.
- The footage has been captured within the last 14 days. We generally will not proceed with a matter unless the footage is sent to us in a timely manner after the incident.
Storage of footage
- The footage which you submit along with your statement will be stored securely on a cloud server. All material associated with an offence or prosecution will be retained in line with Police and government legislated retention policies.
- Footage submitted for accepted Dangerous Driving reports may be used for media, training or publication purposes.
- It will be your responsibility to ensure that the original footage is saved in its original format. This could be for example on the internal memory of the device or perhaps on an external storage medium such as an SD card. It can also be copied to a laptop or other device, in its original format.
- You will not need to hand your recording device such as your mobile phone to police
Do not post footage of dangerous driving on social media. Your footage should not be in the public domain as this may adversely affect any subsequent proceedings.
Frequently asked questions
Footage
Speed generally can only be proven by a speed recording from an approved and calibrated device, operated by a trained Police operator. Smart phone Apps and SATNAV programs do not fall into this category. However, in cases of extreme excessive speed, we may be able to perform time over distance calculations to calculate a speed.
No. Digital material submitted via the online mechanism will not be enhanced, if you are unable to read the vehicle number plate from the original clip, then the Police are unlikely to be able to read it when they replay the footage.
Yes. ACT Policing will deal with all matters such as careless or dangerous riding if the identity of the rider is known.
You must be aware when ACT Policing review the footage which you submit, they are duty bound to also review the manner of your driving and also the manner in which the footage was obtained. For example, if you were exceeding the speed limit in order to catch up with an offending driver and proceeded to film them with your mobile phone whilst driving, then Police will consider taking action against you.
After submission
The evidence which you provide will be reviewed by Police to firstly establish if an offence has been committed and to identify the specific offence. Each case will be considered on its own merits. By using the online Dangerous Driving report, the user agrees to leave the question of prosecution or other disposal in the hands of Police.
In most cases, no, but in some cases this may be required. If action is taken against a driver, which is then disputed by that driver, you will be required to provide a witness statement for Court.
Yes. It is anticipated that only 1 to 2% of all offences reported using the online Dangerous Driving report will result in a court appearance. ACT Policing will not be able to prosecute the offence without you being willing to attend Court. You witnessed, recorded and provided the evidence to Police which is crucial to a successful court prosecution. When cases are heard at court, the video evidence is so compelling that a ‘not guilty plea’ is rarely entered or continued.
Police will email you after your submission has been reviewed and actioned to advise you of the outcome. We are unable to go into specific details of the action taken due to privacy regulations.
The driver
There are a number of disposal methods available dependent on the nature of the offence. The driver could be issued a warning letter, an official Traffic Infringement Caution, a Traffic Infringement Notice (demerit points and/or fixed penalty), or they could receive a summons to attend court - or Police may decide we are unable to take any further action.
The offending driver will not be provided with your details. However, on the rare occasion the offence which you have reported results in a court appearance, then at this stage the offending driver will become aware of your name but not your address or any other personal details.
If you think someone has reported you using the online Dangerous Driving report and wish to discuss this with police contact the ACT Policing Road Policing team at ACTP-DangerousDriving@afp.gov.au