Quote:
Originally Posted by adc
Don’t most of these only keep the data long term only in the case of accident? Meaning, in normal operation they only keep the last few minutes. Plus you can erase it all with a push of a button.
So what would be there to subpoena?
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If you're doing a fast drive-by, nothing at all.
But if you hit something, it's going to record and keep the data long term.
Most cameras keep the events leading up to a collision in memory, which is automatically saved in a collision. So if you were exceeding the speed limit right before the accident, your dashcam is going to have that on record.
This means if you hit something and there's a dashcam in the car; the only reason it wouldn't have a recording of the events leading up to the accident would be because it was in the car but turned off (which is pretty unlikely), or had been manually deleted.
Now, while I doubt a "destroying evidence" charge is ever going to stick, it'd certainly be making a point of it if I were the prosecution:
"The defendant had a dash-cam in the car at the time of the accident; and the model in question is configured out of the box to automatically record in the event of an accident - so it should contain vital footage which would confirm the defendant's version of events and prove their innocence.
Unfortunately, it doesn't contain any footage at the time of the event. Which would only be the case if it were unplugged at the time of the incident or manually deleted by the defendant. "