How to get dangerous/negligent drivers off the road or corrected?

[springtucky]

In my day to day driving I do a lot of things to protect me from negligent, irresponsible, and dangerous drivers. For instance, I have to brake abruptly when someone changes into my lane with no warning, no signal, and when there is not a safe distance between us. Or when I have to swerve or stop when people turn into the wrong lane (the lane in which I am turning into). Is there anything that I am able to do to report these drivers in a way that might get the problem taken care of? I know that calling 911 is probably not the best idea, and reporting it to the police might not accomplish anything because it's only my word to go on.

I had thought about setting up a camera on my dash, but a friend told me that that was illegal because it's an invasion of privacy.

What are my options? Is there something I can do, or do I just have to deal with it?

State: OR
City: Springfield and Eugene

[Citicop]

I am aware of nowhere a dash cam is illegal to have.

People do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy to their actions while on a public street.

-Citicop.

[CPL1897]

Theres no "expectation of privacy" in public, also this happens to everyone in America, its a fact of life if you drive, it happens to me daily when Im driving around in my civies, all I do is shake my head and hope I catch them later.

[springtucky]

So if I did install the dash cam and caught people driving dangerously and illegally, then brought the video by the police station could/would anything be done?

[CPL1897]

Realisticly, probably not, in most states traffic violations have to be seen by the Officer for a citation to be issued. Here in Florida no Officer is going to write someone a citation based on a civilian video of it.

We are talking about non-criminal violations. Honestly sometimes in life you have to live with things, this is one of them. Like I said I see it all the time when off duty, sure I could call it in and have someone "maybe" catch them and issue appropriate citations based on the "good faith" laws but I would never waste another cops time with it, there are serious crimes that come first.

[scott715us]

Since traffic violations are criminal in nature in Tennessee (where I live), then video evidence to support the careless/reckless driving could land a citation, but there's a couple of problems. The first problem is identifying the driver. Even if the license plate is clearly visible, it doesn't necessarily mean the registered owner is driving the vehicle. Second, and more importantly, is the fact that most police departments have plenty of other things going on with higher priority than attempting to pursue a citation against someone based upon video of another driver. We have the ability to cite someone involving a traffic offense that we didn't see, but the citizen who did see it would have to sign the citation (as prosecutor) and appear in court. It would basically be his word against the violator's. Now obviously video evidence would help support the driving. The only time I would suggest reporting a driving infraction is if it seriously puts you or others in jeopardy, which would be DUI or Road-rage incidents. My advice would be to call and report the vehicle in question if it's driving reckless or the driver is likely impaired. If the police have the resources to deal with it, then they will. If they don't at that time, don't worry, people like that always get caught at some point.