Best way to make a car-cam and (hopefully) avoid police malfeasance

September 13, 2007 5:12 PM

What is the best way to make a car-mounted camera system, a la Brett Darrow?

Just saw the video of Brett Darrow's encounter with a couple of crazy cops, and want to follow suit.

What's a cost-effective way for me to have a similar set-up? I don't have thousands of bucks to spend and I'm thinking DIY, anyone done anything like this or know anyone who has?

posted by bulanjing to science & nature (4 comments total)

How about a self contained unit like an Action Cam for $129. According to the manual, with a 2Gb SD card, you can record 320x240 video at 30fps for about 6 hours. Maybe you can jury rig it to run off the car battery instead of he 2 AA batteries.
posted by jaimev at 7:20 PM on September 13, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I built one for an actual public safety application. Use a bullet security camera, a rear view mirror mount, and a laptop with windows media encoder
posted by nikko at 8:27 PM on September 13, 2007

Land Rover Cam. Kurt's cam
posted by hortense at 8:32 PM on September 13, 2007

I got the impression from Darrow's "they upload to secure sources" comment that he might have more than just a recorder back there. I've thought about doing something like this for a long time, and with EVDO rev A and HSUPA it's finally getting practical. I'd want a laptop recording to local storage constantly, and when I flip a switch or press a button, it starts sending the last few minutes of video plus a constant realtime stream to some off-site host, so if the car is impounded or tampered with, the video survives.

Looks like the software side is gonna be strictly homebrew.

Little NTSC cameras are all over the place, and they're cheap. I'd want one facing forward from the rear, perhaps mounted in the third taillight, to capture actions in the pasenger compartment and out the front of the vehicle. I'd also want one facing back and left, perhaps mounted in the dash, to show the driver's and officer's actions more clearly.
posted by Myself at 10:58 AM on September 14, 2007