Arlington Police Adopt New Plan To Catch, Punish Reckless Drivers
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Arlington Police say they are the first police department in North Texas with a new plan using witness video to fight road rage and reckless driving.
After a road rage shooting last week, another another unsolved case from last year, the department is willing to use video shot by any witness, to punish reckless drivers.
Video of a driver tailgating, cutting off cars and weaving in and out of traffic resulted in Arlington Police showing up at the driver's home after investigators ran the license plate.
"He admitted that he was driving. He blamed that he was frustrated in traffic and that other people were trying to tailgate him," said Lt. Chris Cook of the Arlington Police Department.
Police say a woman called 911 to report she'd been a victim of his road rage, but officers weren't able to find the car.
The victim's passenger was able to record the aggressive driver and emailed it to police.
The video, plus the admission from the driver that he was the one behind wheel was enough for police to give him three citations.
"With everything that's going on in Arlington with aggressive driving and road rage we're looking at new innovative ways to deal with this," said Lt. Cook.
It's the first time Arlington Police has done that without an officer personally seeing reckless driving in person.
Arlington Police plan to use video like this to go after very severe cases of road rage. They want people to send in video, but ask that drivers not record while driving..