Hants Snap - FAQs
Q: I have reported an incident, what will the outcome be?
One of the following outcomes will take place for the owner or driver of the vehicle involved following review of your report.
- Formal action – Submissions of clear offences will result in formal action being taken. Eligible drivers will be offered an educational course or issued a fixed penalty. Drivers that are not eligible for education or fixed penalty will be prosecuted at court.
- Warning in writing – Where poor driving is shown but will not meet the burden of proof to provide a realistic prospect of conviction at court.
- No Further Action – Where no clear offence is shown or the submission terms have not been met (e.g. footage too short or registration number not obtainable).
Regardless of outcome, all submissions will result in the incident and vehicles involved being recorded for police intelligence purposes.
Q: Will I hear back from police?
In the majority of cases you will not be contacted by police. Your statement and video submission will allow the driver to be dealt with via the fixed penalty process without the need for contacting you back.
Should the incident not be finalised through an educational course or fixed penalty, the case will be referred to court and you will be notified. If you have not heard from us after 6 months from the date of the incident, then the reported case will have been concluded without the need for a court hearing.
Q: Do I need to retain the original footage?
If the case proceeds to court, then the original footage will be required and you may be called as a witness. It will be your responsibility to ensure that the original footage is saved in its original format dependant on how it is stored on the device. This could be, for example, on the internal memory of the device or perhaps on an external storage medium such as an SD card.
Q: Do I need to be willing to attend Court?
A small number of cases may be prosecuted at court. As such, if you are reporting an incident you do need to be willing to attend court at a later date. It should be noted that this occurs in a very small proportion of cases and the majority will be resolved without any further involvement from you.
Q: I cannot read the number plate of the offending vehicle, can you enhance it?
We cannot enhance recorded footage, if you are unable to read the vehicle number plate from the original clip, then we are unlikely to be able to read it when we replay the footage.
Q: Will my mobile phone or other recording device be taken from me?
The device you use to record the offence will not be taken from you.
Q: I’ve put my footage on social media, can I ask you to take a look?
You must remove the footage from social media. Crown Prosecution Service advice is that your footage should not be in the public domain as this may adversely affect any subsequent proceedings.
Q: Will my own actions or the way in which I captured the footage be scrutinised?
You must be aware that when we review the footage which you submit that we are duty bound to review the events surrounding the incident, your behaviour 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 then proceeded to film them with your mobile phone whilst driving, we may consider also taking proceedings against you.
If any action has been undertaken that could be perceived to have provoked the incident, the matter is unlikely to be progressed.
Q: Do I need to have a date/time stamp on my video footage? If so, must this be exactly the right time?
Your witness statement must accurately state the date and time of the incident. As the video footage is used to support your witness statement it is not imperative for there to be a date/time stamp on the footage. In the event that the date/time stamp is incorrect, you must explain this within the body of your witness statement.
Q:Will the offending driver know who I am?
The offending driver will not be provided with your details. However, on the rare occasion that 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.
Q: How will my footage be stored?
The footage which you submit along with your statement will be stored securely by Hampshire Police and will be handled in line with our privacy notice and retention policies.
https://www.hampshire.police.uk/hyg/fpnhc/privacy-notice/
