Should I fit a dashcam to my car?

I have had several near misses recently, none of them my fault, so I was wondering about getting a dashboard camera. What is the law regarding them? Apparently they can’t intrude more than 4cms into the swept area of the wiper blades, and cannot emit any sort of light. My own thoughts are that I may get my car broken into as I cannot keep removing it and having to set it up every time. It would be nice to hide the wire but the unit is 5 volt and has to have a plug-in power unit, so cannot be hardwired into the fusebox. I wouldn’t want the other driver to know the camera was there if evidence was required. And I don’t want to spend a lot of money on having one fitted as I may change the car in the next couple of years.

Asked on 7 December 2013 by RO, via email

Answered by Honest John
You have done some useful research. I'm about to start testing a SmartWitness dashcam (www.smartwitness.co.uk). Most seem to be fitted in the area behind the mirror, because that area of screen is obscured anyway by the mirror. You are quite right that if you leave it on the screen in a parked car then you stand a high chance of a side window being smashed and the camera stolen.
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