Dash mounted camera's

Whats your thought on dash mounted cameras? I think we all have a story about driving to the scene and that one motorist (or multiple) that add to stress levels. With a camera we could use the film to assist in drivers training. I also think if you have any extra manpower you can have someone on the crew to turn the camera to video the action on the scene of whatever your call is. Again the training aspect alone would be unmeasurable. I know in todays world the possability of lawsuits would make this a hard sell for some, but we are there for the job, and any assistance a camera could give us for fireground operations, and critique would be awesome. Anyone out there have a camera on board, and if so whats do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Greenman on August 14, 2008 at 9:07am

"It is the folks who deliberately do not pull over - you see their eyes looking at you in the mirrors yet they do nothing - who need some type of slap upside the head."

Joe,

Those are the ones who need to be ticketed! We all have a "Senior moment," or don't see the emergency vehicle until it's right behind you and "chirps" you...they're not the ones I'm talking about.

GM

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Permalink Reply by Jack Booth on August 14, 2008 at 10:26am

I think that dash mounted cameras are a great thing of the present and/or future. I don't, however, want everyone to get caught up in the moment, and be worried about filming the scene of whatever you're on rather than doing their job on the Fire or EMS scene. I love, however, the idea of having a dash mounted camera in the "rig" or on the "bus", filming traffic as you respond to your call... etc. I have three years of Law Enforcment experience and I had a dash mounted camera in my patrol car the entire time... and absolutely loved it. The dash mounted camera saved my butt more than one time. I think that the dash mounted camera definitely has it's place in the Fire & EMS field.

Jack
FTM - PTB

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on August 14, 2008 at 5:18pm

Dash mounted cannons will not be out until the 2016 version of NFPA 1901...LOL

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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on August 14, 2008 at 8:23pm

No, GM - those are the ones the cannon is for!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on August 14, 2008 at 8:26pm

You bring up a good point - the ideal dash cam would not be accessible to the cab occupants. That would be a fine thing, apparatus accidents due to the MPO or officer "fiddling" with the camera.