You're nicked - the vigilante car camera.

Imagine thousands - if not tens of thousands - of mobile traffic cameras on our roads.  Not fitted to high visibility police vehicles, but installed in private cars, rusty old vans, lorries making deliveries, and even public buses, coaches and taxis.

Members of the public are taking matters into their own hands as an ex-police chief provokes human rights campaigners, Liberty, whose view is that the large-scale expansion of cameras watching the public poses a threat to our way of life.

Controversial even in its name, PoliceWitness.com recruits and encourages ‘Visualantes’ to capture acts of dangerous driving on video and then report these incidents via a website. The reports are then forwarded to specific, dedicated contacts within each police force for consideration of prosecution or indeed (for better or worse, depending on your view) a stern letter.

The former ACC of Northamptonshire police, Alan Featherstone, was never far from controversy in his role as a senior police officer; however with front line policing cuts it would seem his private crusade in retirement is being met with public enthusiasm.

Ex-ACC Featherstone said: “Our research has indicated that people are simply not going to sit back during these policing cuts, the public want people who flout the law, and put the lives of others in jeopardy, held to account. With fewer officers and working speed cameras on our streets I have already seen people’s driving styles change for the worse. Nearly every time I get into my car I see some idiot take a risk not just with their own life, but with others.”

The thought of Prime Minister Cameron’s Big Society springs to mind as so called ‘Police Witnesses’ take the law into their own hands - organised crime and lawless youths beware!

Cameras cost about £150 and files showing dangerous driving incidents are reported to Police Witness by uploading the file to You Tube using a specific file name.  It’s easy, it’s anonymous and it will teach the boy racers or drunken drivers a lesson.

Police forces across the country are already interested in the opportunities which come from this initiative, with implications for use in Neighbourhood Policing as well as fighting crime. But is it legal?   Yes, the fact is we all have a perfectly legitimate right to film or take pictures in public.

So the next time you think about putting your foot down, using your mobile phone whilst driving or getting out of your car and hurling abuse at some poor unsuspecting road user, think on ... because you never know who is watching or recording you.

The business is explained in full at www.policewitness.com.