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Camera cyclist submits footage of drivers on the phone and parking illegally to Irish police… and gets fined for riding through a red light

An investigation later found the police officer to be in “neglect of duty” for not responding to complaints of other drivers also running red lights, but the finding was quashed by the Chief Superintendent as “disproportionate”

A cyclist who submitted helmet camera footage of drivers using their phones and parking illegally was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice by an Irish police officer after finding that the footage also showed the cyclist riding through a red light. However, the cyclist’s complaints of other drivers also doing the same were ignored by the Garda, for which they were investigated and found to be in “breach of disciplinary regulations” of neglecting duty.

The news comes courtesy of the 2023 Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) annual report, in which the case is mentioned under ‘Investigations on the Foot of Complaints’ as a case study.

The initial complaint was made by a cyclist who alleged that they frequently witnessed drivers using their phones and parking illegally and had reported many such incidents to the Garda traffic watch phone line. The rider said that they had given an officer a statement and shared the video footage captured by their helmet camera of one such incident.

However, the cyclist was then told by the Garda that the footage showed him riding through a red light, and that they were to be issued with a fixed penalty notice.

The cyclist asked the police if the other drivers that appear to be committing traffic offences in the same video will be prosecuted or not, but was instead asked to submit their questions in writing. Despite doing so, the police failed to provide a response or acknowledgement.

> Police apologise as charges against “dangerous” cyclist accused of “riding on the wrong side of the road” while filming phone driver dropped on eve of trial

The failure to do so by the officer was seemingly noted by the police team, which led to an investigation. The report states: “An unsupervised Garda disciplinary investigation was commenced under s94(1) of the Act.

“The investigation found that the member was in breach of disciplinary regulations (neglect of duty) for failure to respond to correspondence without sufficient cause. A sanction of advice was applied.”

However, the officer appealed this finding to a Garda Chief Superintendent, who eventually quashed the finding, “ruling it disproportionate”.

The incident has led to accusations that a due process was not followed by the Garda, with one person claiming that the sanction delivered to the officer was “only quashed by the Superintendent because he hates cyclists”.

Another person commented on social media: “Typical Gardai behaviour. I had footage of taxi driver breaking red light & almost hitting me & another cyclist. Because I said 'f**ks sake' on the footage, an obnoxious sergeant in Pearse St station told me he’d seek a prosecution against me for disorderly conduct in public.”

Similar incidents have happened in the UK as well. Dave Clifton was cycling on Pont Street in Belgravia, London in August last year when he came across a driver at the wheel of a Range Rover in momentarily stationary traffic using his mobile phone and turned around to capture footage of the man caught in the act.

> Third-party reporting of drivers discussed on Channel 5, with CyclingMikey urging more cyclists to do it and the police claiming it’s “making roads safer”

However in February, instead of issuing a penalty for holding a cellular device to the driver, the Met police instead proceeded to claim that the cyclist had been riding on the wrong side of the road, and suggested that he “could pose a danger to other road users”.

Natasha Springford, a Met police staff member in the traffic division, said that the cyclist was “in the middle of the road” and was then “very close to the Range Rover on the opposite side of the road whilst a motorcyclist was oncoming with a passenger”.

She added: “You can see the cyclist cycling towards the oncoming motorbike that is filtering between traffic,” and then suggested the motorbike has to “ride in between the cyclist that is very close and the Range Rover”.

Then in March, the Met Police ended up apologising for any “stress and inconvenience” caused as it dropped its much-criticised attempt to prosecute Clifton — just one day before the cyclist was due to face trial for cycling without due care and attention.

In a letter sent to the cyclist yesterday explaining the U-turn, a senior manager at the Met said that while responses to footage of road traffic violations submitted to the police were “subjective” and based on the opinion of the officer reviewing the footage, the offence of cycling without due care was not met in this instance, and that the footage of the incident is now being used by the force for internal training purposes.

Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.

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11 comments

Avatar
FrankH | 3 weeks ago
1 like

No sympathy. If you're going to snitch on somebody, at least make the effort to appear squeaky clean yourself.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to FrankH | 3 weeks ago
5 likes

So we have a story here about police partiality and you're talking about snitches?

If you do live somewhere the police aren't simply anti- cycling, or "intensely relaxed" about any motoring offenses short of running over coppers, or who haven't let you know their position in advance by making reporting a trial (Police Scotland)...

... then it's still a very good idea to appear "whiter than white" when reporting. You're more believable. And obviously the police will love an offender who turns up with proof of their own guilt!

Avatar
perce replied to FrankH | 3 weeks ago
7 likes

When someone is pushed off their bike by a passenger in a van and footage is passed on to the police would you describe that as ''snitching'' as well?

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to FrankH | 3 weeks ago
5 likes

FrankH wrote:

No sympathy. If you're going to snitch on somebody, at least make the effort to appear squeaky clean yourself.

Quite right. And if you're going to describe reporting illegal, dangerous and frequently life-threatening behaviours to the police as snitching, at least make the effort to make sure your primary school teacher doesn't know you've got your phone out under the desk.  

Avatar
wtjs | 1 month ago
3 likes

the cyclist was then told by the Garda that the footage showed him riding through a red light, and that he was to be issued with a fixed penalty notice

I wonder if the police there are like Lancashire, and completely ignore red light offences by drivers?

https://upride.cc/incident/pl68tev_polo_redlightpass/

https://upride.cc/incident/da21sww_leon_redlightpass/

https://upride.cc/incident/kl04ndo_vw_redlightpass/

Avatar
eburtthebike | 1 month ago
5 likes

Whilst I am sure that other countries with different languages also have some anti-cycling behaviour, the English speaking section of the world does seem to be uniquely gifted in that department: UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, USA........

Avatar
Oldfatgit | 1 month ago
8 likes

If I read that right ...

The sanction was for failing to respond to the communication .. not for failing to progress against other offenders.

Says it all ..

Avatar
JMcL_Ireland replied to Oldfatgit | 1 month ago
3 likes

I think that's correct. 

One plausible theory for his getting a FPN thrown at him (aside from the stupidity of submitting footage including it in the first place) is that he might have displayed "hattitude" to the Guard (it's an Irish Guard thing - drop the "h") when querying it as an awful lot of guards are averse to the paperwork if they can at all avoid it.

Finally, here's an article on it with a fine display of gammon in the comments - https://www.thejournal.ie/cyclist-gardai-footage-fine-6484410-Sep2024/ 

Warning: have some valium to hand. The news outlet is fine but boy do they let some knuckle dragger keyboard warriors have their way

Avatar
Bungle_52 replied to JMcL_Ireland | 1 month ago
1 like

Thanks for the info and the link, very informative. From the comments section in that article.

Quote:

Cyclists think the roads are for them only. Traffic lights are not for them. When I see a helmet camera it makes my blood boil, I usually tell them to get the F@#£ out of my space.

This one had 426 likes when I looked, far more than any other. I think it sums up many drivers' attitude to cyclists rather well. Unfortunately it would appear that the Guardai may share this view.

This reply to the above got 161 likes which I must admit is more than I expected and shows there is some hope.

Quote:

some of all road users are gobsh**es no denying that. I bet you don’t go swearing at people illegally parking or speeding in cars. People have serious irrational hatred for cyclists when they’re mostly harmless.

The take away for me is that if you run a camera don't run red lights, I haven't since I started filming.

Avatar
IanMK | 1 month ago
11 likes

Justice is the administration of what is just. Meaning that it should be equitable and fair. This is patently not. This should be the very first lesson in police school.

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the little onion | 1 month ago
13 likes

Institutionally anti-cyclist

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