Is too much caught on camera?

Could your car be confiscated for witnessing a murder? Barry Collins investigates the odd consequences of video capture everywhere

- Barry Collins

If you come back to a parking spot to find your car’s been towed away, you’ve had a bad day. If you come back to find your car’s been towed because it potentially witnessed a murder, you’ve had a really bad day.

This is reportedly what’s happening in the US, where according to the San Francisco Chronicle, police are obtaining warrants to tow away Teslas that have been parked near crime scenes, in case their cameras have captured evidence of the crime.

It’s an extreme example of a growing trend, where footage captured on consumer devices is being used to assist police investigations. Whether it’s a video doorbell capturing a neighbour’s car being stolen, dashcam footage showing a traffic accident or passers-by recording an incident on their phone, police are increasingly turning to citizen-captured evidence.

For decades, the tabloids have been obsessed with “Big Brother Britain” and the number of state CCTV cameras capturing our movements. But with video doorbells fitted to a fifth of all homes, according to 2022 figures from Consumer Intelligence, and the wide variety of other video capture devices out there, privacy campaigners fear we are now truly living in a “surveillance state”. And that’s before we even consider related technology, such as AI facial recognition.

Is there anything consumers can do to prevent their devices being dragged into criminal investigations? And do we have to accept that our every move in public is likely now captured on video somewhere?

Chief witness Having your car towed away because it potentially witnessed a crime might sound like one of those “silly season” news stories where a threat is overblown, but legal experts believe that the use of such evidence is only likely to increase.