Where a dash cam may be mounted on a California windshield

Section 26708(a)(1) is the rule everything else works around: a person may not drive with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed or applied upon the windshield or side or rear windows. Subdivision (b) then lists the exceptions, and paragraph (13)(A) is the one written for cameras. It permits a video event recorder in exactly three places. The first is a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield farthest removed from the driver, which is the bottom passenger side corner. The second is a five-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest to the driver, and that one carries an extra condition, it must sit outside of an airbag deployment zone. The third is a five-inch square mounted to the center uppermost portion of the interior of the windshield, the strip behind the rearview mirror. That third option belongs to video event recorders alone.

The statute defines what it is protecting. A "video event recorder" means a video recorder that continuously records in a digital loop, recording audio, video, and G-force levels, but saves video only when triggered by an unusual motion or crash or when operated by the driver to monitor driver performance, and paragraph (13)(A) opens by describing a recorder with the capability of monitoring driver performance to improve driver safety. A camera that simply writes continuously to a memory card, with no loop, no G-force channel and no trigger, does not match that description, so a driver relying on this exemption should be able to point to loop recording and impact triggering in the device specification.

Four further conditions travel with the exemption. Under paragraph (13)(B) a vehicle equipped with a video event recorder must have a notice posted in a visible location stating that a passenger conversation may be recorded. Under (13)(C) the recorder may store no more than 30 seconds before and after a triggering event. Under (13)(D) the registered owner or lessee may disable the device, and under (13)(E) the data recorded to the device is the property of the registered owner or lessee. Paragraph (13)(F) reaches employment: when a person is driving for hire as an employee in a vehicle with a video event recorder, the employer must supply unedited copies of the recordings on request by the employee or the employee representative, free of charge and within five days of the request.

It is easy to confuse the camera allowance with its neighbours in the same list, and the squares are not interchangeable. Paragraph (b)(3) covers signs, stickers and other materials in a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield farthest from the driver, a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the rear window farthest from the driver, and a five-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest the driver. Paragraph (b)(11) permits an electronic communication device in a five-inch square at the center uppermost portion of the interior windshield, but only where the device supports California Highway Patrol enforcement communication or electronic toll and traffic management. Paragraph (b)(12) permits a portable GPS in the seven-inch passenger corner or the five-inch driver corner outside an airbag deployment zone, and only when used for door-to-door navigation while the vehicle is being operated, with no behind-the-mirror option. Paragraph (b)(2) exempts adjustable nontransparent sunvisors only where they are mounted forward of the side windows and not attached to the glass, so a visor bracket that clamps onto the windshield is not covered by it.

A camera mounted outside the zones in section 26708(b)(13) is charged under section 26708(a)(1) or (a)(2) as an infraction. Vehicle Code section 42001(a) sets the ceiling at $100 for a first infraction, $200 for a second within one year of a conviction and $250 for a third or subsequent within a year of two or more convictions, before penalty assessments. 5(e) brings it inside the correctable violation scheme and section 40610(a)(1) directs the officer to take a signed promise to correct instead of a citation, on a Judicial Council form stating a reasonable correction time not exceeding 30 days, unless one of the section 40610(b) disqualifiers applies: fraud or persistent neglect, an immediate safety hazard, or a driver who will not or cannot promptly correct the violation.

Moving the camera into a permitted square is the correction, and proof may be certified by a police department, the California Highway Patrol, a sheriff, a marshal or another agency regularly engaged in Vehicle Code enforcement under section 40616(c). The clerk collects a $25 transaction fee for each violation under section 40611(a). Willfully violating the written promise to correct or failing to deliver proof of correction is a misdemeanor under section 40616, and section 40618 allows the issuing agency to file the unfulfilled promise with the court as the complaint.

The separate conditions in paragraphs (13)(B) through (13)(F), including the posted recording notice and the five day deadline for giving an employee unedited copies, are obligations of the vehicle owner and employer rather than moving violations.