Last month, my brother-in-law was knocked off his bike and seriously injured. As a regular commuter, this shocked me, and almost put me off riding again.
However, I know what the data says: cycling is statistically a safe activity; the benefits of regular cycling far outweigh any risks.
I decided to put my energy into working towards positive change. I got myself a helmet camera and began reporting incidents to the police.
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Cyclists who record their rides aren’t always popular. YouTuber Cycling Mikey – real name Mike van Erp – described himself as “marmite” to Cycling Weekly, but his reason for reporting is simple: “I just like to think that with the power of one I’m trying to change a little bit of road safety,” he told The Guardian in 2022.
Before beginning my new short film endeavour, I wanted to be sure that my reporting would be useful, productive, and would have a positive impact, so I spoke to police, campaigners, and regular reporters, to collect their tips.
1) Your recording, and reporting, has a positive impact
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Senior Policy Officer at the London Cycling Campaign, Tom Bogdanowicz, told me: “We strongly support camera reporting, which helps deter close passing by drivers, phone use while driving and other offences.”
Operation Snap – Op Snap for short – is a UK police initiative which allows the public to upload and report footage of driving offences. Each UK force has its own process.
West Midlands Police uploads a report of its submissions and resulting action each month, and Bogdanowicz told me, “The West Midlands police are the gold standard when it comes to promoting and enforcing on public-supplied camera footage – and their results are hard to argue.
“[Their] approach shows that a supportive force, clear instructions to reporters and efficient follow-up leads to more enforcement and deterrence – and that means fewer people killed or injured on our roads.”
2) You need to capture the incident, the registration number; and duration matters
(Image credit: Future)
West Midlands Police provided clear criteria for useful uploads; “it needs to be footage showing the incident, and where the Vehicle Registration Number of the vehicle involved is identifiable. The footage should include the entire incident and, wherever possible, one minute before and after the offence. The footage should not be any longer than 10 minutes in duration.”
While working on this article, I reported a close pass to Dorset Police via its Operation Snap website. I found that Dorset Police says you must upload “at least two minutes of unedited footage, both before and after the reported incident,” to have a chance of prosecution.
3) Equipment makes all the difference
(Image credit: Simon Fellows)
Danny Brothwell is the chair of Bike Worcester, he’s personally made 800 submissions to Operation Snap. Bike Worcester received funding from the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner to buy 16 Drift Ghost XL cameras for cyclists. Brothwell values their incident-saving feature: “If someone close-passes you, you press the button, and it saves to the card 10 seconds before and 10 seconds afterwards.” He says it “really minimises review time and editing time.”
Brothwell recommends good image quality, especially for riding in the dark, along with long battery life and an easy-to-operate setup. His own camera can struggle on unlit stretches of his commute. Crucially, riders must check their own force’s footage requirements: Brothwell’s short saved clips would not meet Dorset Police’s stated two-minute-before-and-after requirement.
For cyclists considering helmet-mounted rather than handlebar-mounted cameras, the same practical test applies: can the footage clearly show the incident and identify the vehicle?
Cycling Weekly has a guide to the best helmet and bike cameras here, the DJI Osmo Nano taking the award for best overall. Cameras that mount on the rear of the bike are useful too, and Garmin’s Varia Rearview 820 won in that department.
Key advice is to look for cameras that offer a ‘Loop Recording’ setting, that will passively record as you ride, constantly overwriting until you select ‘archive’, eg in the event of an incident. You want the ‘archive’ button to be instinctive, and one-press so you can use it correctly when adrenaline is high.
You should keep the original footage safe until the prosecution is complete.
Brothwell says he keeps the footage as Operation Snap requests. “The three times I’ve been to court, they’ve all been 12 months after the event – almost to the day,” he recalls. He stores the files on a hard drive. His experience is a useful warning not to assume that six months is always long enough: follow the relevant force’s instructions and preserve the original while a case remains live.
6) Pause before posting on social media
(Image credit: Future)
Don’t share footage on social media if you want to prosecute.
Dorset Police explicitly state you should take down any social media footage before reporting the incident. West Midlands Police also state, “it is very important that you do not post footage elsewhere prior to and while any action is being taken by the police or courts.”
Brothwell avoids publishing footage that he has submitted to the police. “I think it’s sensible,” he says, because sharing it “may impact any proceedings.” He has published some clips when writing about his experiences at magistrates’ court, but he keeps live cases off social media.
7) Your statement is core to the report
Brothwell admits his early submissions sometimes contained little more than the words “close pass.” After police feedback, he changed his approach: “They gave me some feedback in one of the meetings to say, ‘Look, if this does go to court, that’s not good enough. Can you do a proper statement?'”
He now uses a fuller statement template, adapting it to the incident and estimating the passing distance. He has given evidence in magistrates’ court three times, where he says prosecutors and defendants questioned him and the footage was played repeatedly. The written account should therefore explain what happened rather than leaving the video to speak for itself.
4) Be aware that prosecution rates will vary, but your reporting always has value
(Image credit: catchpole)
West Midlands Police stated, “we take everything on a case-by-case basis, and we’d encourage people to submit footage if they believe an offence has been committed so that it can be properly assessed.”
Brothwell says most of his submissions involved close passes, but he has also reported red-light offences, occasional mobile-phone use and vehicles obstructing crossings or school zigzags; he cautions that not every Highway Code contravention is necessarily suitable for an Operation Snap report.
Brothwell describes Operation Snap as a “postcode lottery”, arguing that forces differ in how they handle reports and communicate outcomes. He is working on his own, yet to be published, research comparing forces.
However, his overall aim is not punishment: “I’ve got no interest in people getting fined. I just want people to acknowledge that driving isn’t good enough. They need to chill out, slow down, and share the road appropriately.” That’s a goal all road users can share.
