How dashcams help solve crimes for police and prove fault in car crashes for drivers – The Mercury News

A red Toyota Tacoma swerves into oncoming traffic, a shocked bystander curses, and others scream as the out-of-control pickup careens into a crowded downtown Fullerton.

The dramatic footage, captured on a camera in a passing vehicle and displayed in a courtroom earlier this year, was one of the first things shown to jurors tasked with deciding whether the pickup’s driver — Christopher Solis — was criminally liable for the 2019 crash that injured nine people. He was convicted earlier this year of hit-and-run causing injuries, hit-and-run causing property damage, and being in possession of a drug.

Whether providing key evidence for criminal trials or piece of mind for motorists worried they will get wrongly blamed for collisions, dash cameras — small, in-vehicle recording systems — are an increasingly common part of automobile culture.

Investigators say that dashcam video has joined surveillance cameras, attached to homes and businesses, as a new tool for law enforcement.

“Every camera provides an angle,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez said. “It is not a tell-all, but the more angles we have, the more tools we have, the better we are able to paint the best picture.”

The recollections of those involved in traumatic events, including traffic collisions, are often unclear or incomplete.

“In any traumatic event, it is hard to remember every single memory,” Gonzalez said.

That at-times subjective views of witnesses and participants often make video evidence, including footage captured on dashcams, a key part of traffic investigations.

“It is a fantastic tool for us,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Cameron Averill, who works felony investigations. “They hold people accountable, whether it is right-doing or wrongdoing.”

The officer recalled one incident when a vehicle swerved across a couple of freeway lanes and struck a motorcycle, killing the rider.

The car’s driver claimed he was driving at normal freeway speed and wasn’t reckless. But dashcam footage provided by another driver who stopped and waited for law enforcement shows the driver had actually been speeding, Averill recalled.

“The people who actually have dashcam evidence are more willing to give it up if they know they are innocent,” the officer said.

For some major cases, law enforcement officials have asked the public for any dashcam evidence or other video, particularly when other investigative avenues have been exhausted.

Within days after the 2021 road-rage shooting in Orange County that killed 6-year-old Aiden Leos, on his way to kindergarten with his mom, the CHP put out a call to the public for help.

“If you were traveling north on 55 Friday morning between the hours of 7:55 and 8:15 in the morning and your vehicle does have a dashcam, we’re urging that you please call our CHP office, provide us with that video, maybe we can find something,” a CHP spokesman said at the time, according to CBS News.

The footage that ended up helping identify gunman Marcus Anthony Eriz came initially from grainy cellphone video of the vehicle he was traveling in, later bolstered by surveillance footage from cameras along the freeway. But in their call for assistance, investigators initially sought dashcam footage. Earlier this year, Eriz was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Torrance Sgt. Tyrone Gribben tussles with a man who assaulted him. The dash camera footage that captured the incident is part of the YouTube series “In the Passenger Seat,” created by the Police Department. (Photo courtesy of Torrance Police Department) 

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