Britons have sent police a record 24,000 dashcam videos in the first half of this year as increasing numbers of motorists and cyclists become vigilante traffic officers.

Drivers are sending in clips from cars and vans while cyclists are uploading helmet-cam videos – with this year’s total so far up 40 per cent on the same period in 2023.

Those with video evidence of dangerous driving or other motoring offences are using the clips to report incidents to officers on the National Dash Cam Safety Portal.

Dashcam company Nextbase claimed more than 70 per cent of the clips resulted in further police action such as warning letters, penalty points and prosecution.

About half of these actions end up in court, according to the firm which launched the platform in 2018 and now works with every force in England and Wales.

More motorists and cyclists are becoming vigilante traffic officers with dashcams (file image)

Dashcam footage shows the dramatic moment a thief stole a couple’s bag as they loaded their luggage into a waiting taxi outside London King’s Cross station on December 13 last year 

School-run parking wars are playing out across the UK as residents use dashcam footage to fight back against parents who they claim are ruining their streets by mounting grass verges

Nextbase, which has processed at least 135,000 dangerous driving clips, is also working to roll out the system with police in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Bryn Brooker, head of road safety at the firm, said: ‘Brits are increasingly making an effort to protect themselves on the road from dangerous drivers, both by installing dashcams and using the footage they record to help get dangerous drivers off the roads.

‘It is perhaps not surprising given so many drivers are taking unnecessary risks in driving while texting, trying to eat a sandwich or some other distraction.’

He added that the ‘need for technological solutions to improve road safety is clear’ and dashcam video evidence was helping police by ‘making it easier to take dangerous drivers off the road, something that has undoubtedly saved lives’.

In the year to date, the top five police force areas processing the most uploads have been West Midlands, West Mercia, Northumbria, Surrey and South Yorkshire.

The company said these five regions have already received over 18,000 submissions in 2024, more than the total number submitted across the UK in the whole of 2021.

In addition, it said there had been a general increase in the number of videos sent in through the portal so far this year, with 24,000 submissions by the end of June.

A Waitrose delivery driver was caught on a dashcam jumping a red light and veering past a queue of traffic outside Chingford Police Station in East London on May 31 

BBC presenter Jeremy Vine uploaded helmet-cam footage in September last year of his near-miss with a HGV driver who cut across a cycle lane in central London without indicating 

Reports of dangerous driving spiked over summer last year, with June 2023 taking the title of the most uploads in a single month. May and July also made the top five.

Nextbase claims to have already saved an estimated 123 years of police time and said its research found 70 per cent of drivers said every car should have a dashcam.

It also cited data published by This Is Money in February that just 2.12 per cent of vehicle thefts in year to June 2023 resulted in someone facing a criminal charge.

Has your dashcam video resulted in a prosecution? Email: tips@dailymail.com