In season 4, episode 21 of “Parks and Recreation,” three of the main characters are attempting to secure van rentals to help with their city council campaign. However, the well-funded opposition has offered to pay the owner of the vans, Bill, a massive amount of money to not rent them out. After trying to reason with him, appealing to his sense of honor, and offering to let him in on the ground floor of an alcoholic yogurt investment scheme, the trio return to their car (a Mercedes owned by Donna Meagle) and sit dejectedly in the driveway. Bill attempts to leave in his truck, but they are blocking the driveway. He honks. They do not move. He becomes angry and gently taps his car into their rear bumper. Donna becomes incensed, pulls forward, then puts the car in reverse and stomps on the gas, ramming into Bill’s truck and causing a good amount of damage to both vehicles.
Bill is, understandably, rather upset. But Donna informs him that she did not hit his car, he just slammed into the back of her car, and she has witnesses to back it up. Bill realizes they fully intend to back up this fake story. He has no evidence, no way to prove that Donna deliberately backed into him. Instead of getting sued, he agrees to let them use the vans for free.
Why did I just recount a scene from a random episode of “Parks and Rec”? Besides being funny (you can check it out here), it’s relevant to real life. Think about it for a second. What if you are behind someone, and they reverse into you? Instead of apologizing, they refuse to admit fault, claiming you rear-ended them. If there are no cameras around, good luck convincing the insurance company.
Incidents like this are more common than you might think. There has been an increase in recent years of people staging vehicle accidents to claim insurance. Here is just one example. What saved the person in this video from being framed was the presence of a dashcam. Our society is increasingly low-trust, and we should be prepared for more and more dishonest behavior. The days when we could assume that a random person we encounter probably shares our sense of right and wrong are over. Your innocence is not important unless you can prove it. That’s where dashcams come in.
A dashcam is a fairly simple device. It’s really just a camera that attaches either to your dashboard (hence the name) or to the inside of your windshield. It records what happens while you are out on the road. Simple, right? Well, buckle up.
There’s a wide variation in pricing, depending mostly on how good the camera is and how much storage it has, as well as other minor factors. You can have just one camera recording out the front of your car, or two so you can have one in the back. The trend is toward ensuring your camera is recording what happens inside your car (popular with Uber or other rideshare drivers), although coverage outside the vehicle is not just helpful for law enforcement.
As for installation, that’s a world of its own. You can plug the cameras into your console charger or wire them into your fuse box. There is an entire niche industry around the wiring, mounting, and general setup of these systems.
The cameras themselves come in many different versions. You can pick up the Car and Driver 1080p HD Dash Cam (yes, the Car and Driver magazine makes a dashcam) at Walmart for around $60. You can also pay $338 for the PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Garmin Dash Cam Live if you want features like 180-degree field of vision, 1440p resolution, driver assist features, voice command, and remote viewing. You can go more expensive (the Escort MAXcam 360c will run you about $900, although it’s also a radar detector so it’s actually not that bad of a deal). And of course, you can also find options at the other end of the price point spectrum. The 70mai Smart Dash Cam 1S can be found for $40, and there are lots of even cheaper generics — yes, the quality is certainly more dubious.
It all really depends on how thoroughly you want to record your surroundings and what your priorities for the system are. Do you just want a camera in the front to record any potential accidents, or are you one of those people who aspires to become a regular contributor to Dashcam Nation, a YouTube channel where you can watch such masterpieces as Idiots in Cars 327. (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.)
Whatever your budget or specific priorities, having a dashcam is a good idea. Leaving aside deliberate fraud, there are many situations in which having evidence comes in handy. In my state, there are so many uninsured drivers — many of them illegal immigrants — that the state requires me to purchase uninsured motorist protections as a part of my auto insurance plan. If you are in an accident involving one of these uninsured drivers, video evidence is going to make your life a lot easier. In the event of a hit-and-run accident, capturing the license plate of the car at fault means you don’t have to rely on your memory for the police statement.
In short: Dashcams can afford you some peace of mind while out on the road, and that’s something we could all use a little more of these days.
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