‘Op Snap’ is on the rise as drivers collect their own images of irregularities, but we must proceed with caution
The ubiquity of video surveillance has recently given us the glorious nickname ‘Clicky Ponting’, bestowed upon a Saltburn Cricket Club player who was accused of ignominiously snapping his fingers to imitate the sound of a ball making contact with a bat, in order to fool umpires and cause batsmen to be caught. He was suspended by the club when the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League began an investigation. This is something serious.
You won’t lack original images either. Local cricket teams record and upload so many highlight reels that there are numerous examples of Saltburn club matches in which opposing batsmen appear bemused, suspicious or downright accusatory when revealed to them.
Elsewhere in Yorkshire, a cyclist was harmed after submitting a video to his local police service’s Operation Snap (the dash-cam surveillance scheme that is an increasingly common way of investigating and prosecuting traffic offences) claiming that a passing car had not given him enough space.
Maybe, maybe not, but what is certain is that a few moments later, as he overtook a parked car, his footage showed him getting even closer to an oncoming vehicle. The BBC reports that a court decided this was driving without due care and attention, and fined him £1,200, including costs.
In both cases you could say that justice has been done in the video footage and that, due to the rise of cameras, you can’t do stupid things and expect to get away with it. Many police services release ‘Op Snap’ images following successful prosecutions and a large proportion of these are people getting what they deserve.
So why do I feel uncomfortable with these plans? It’s not (or not just) because no one loves grass, especially since I’d be very grateful if, say, I was robbed, but some CCTV camera, dash cam or doorbell had footage that meant the police decided my plight wasn’t worth ignoring.
However, I am concerned that there will be people who manipulate or instigate situations as a hobby, just to send them, and that violations that a traffic cop on the scene would be willing to let slide are processed.
Former insurance claims handler Shaun Jobber, who makes videos analyzing dash cam footage, reports that one of his viewers was prosecuted for making a mistake: One video clip shows slow, stubborn traffic in lanes three and four, while his viewer’s car slowly passes by in lane two, filmed and presented from a car in lane one. The business driver was offered a remedial course, three points or the option to go to court; They decided that the judicial option was too risky and took the course. The police service can make this a successful process, but to what real end?
But my big concern is that various Snap Ops operations are (or are being) used as poor substitutes for proper road policing. Recent figures show dedicated highway policing officers now number just 3,765, a 25% drop on a decade ago. And when I wrote about this in 2017, an official emailed me to say I’d be “surprised” how scarce they were even then.
London’s Metropolitan Police is currently deciding whether to scrap its roads policing department to save money, which former traffic commissioner Beverley Bell has described as “reckless in the extreme”.
This part is anecdotal, I know, but I’ve seen cars rushing violently through traffic three times lately. And I mean violently: not just a light task but swerving between lanes at high speed. It was probably caught on camera somewhere, so it’s something you would only do if you think there’s no chance of being caught. If these cars have cloned plates or were purchased but never registered with a new owner, where is the danger? If they think the next car they divert could contain a highly qualified officer, they might think twice. As it is, a dash cam will see them, but their license plates cannot be traced back to the right humans.
Meanwhile, more minor indiscretions are discovered, so the prosecution’s numbers look good and the Op-Snapping process continues. This is low-hanging fruit policing: the hard stuff, the expensive, serious work that requires highly trained officers, is ignored.
Correlation is not causation, but as camera surveillance has increased and highway policing has decreased, the reduction in road casualties has plateaued. Op-Snapping is cheap and easy and returns numbers. In principle, it is difficult to argue against it. But it is not a substitute for the real thing.
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