Dash Cam Mounting in Colorado: The Video Display Rule

Several states answer the dash-cam question with a closed list of things that may legally sit on a windshield. Colorado does not have one. The words "dash cam" appear nowhere in title 42, and the only place "camera" appears in the Vehicles and Traffic title is in the automated vehicle identification provisions about signage for photo enforcement. The consequence is that a Colorado driver is governed by two general subsections of § 42-4-201, and by the small windshield allowance in the tint section.

Subsection (4) is the placement rule: no vehicle shall be operated upon any highway unless the driver’s vision through any required glass equipment is normal and unobstructed. There is no measured exclusion zone, no square-inch figure and no named corner of the glass, so the test is functional. A camera tucked high behind the rear-view mirror, where the mirror already blocks the same sight line, is the position that best answers it. A body clipped low in the middle of the windshield in the driver’s forward view is the position that does not.

Subsection (3) is the display rule, and it is the more particular of the two. A person shall not drive a motor vehicle equipped with a video display visible to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. The exception, added by SB 12-092 with effect from July 1, 2012, is that the subsection does not prohibit using a computer, data terminal, or safety equipment so long as it "is not used to display visual entertainment, including internet browsing, social media, and e-mail, to the driver while the motor vehicle is in motion". A dash camera is safety equipment and records rather than entertains, so it sits inside the carve-out. The practical advice that follows is specific: set the camera so its screen sleeps or blanks while driving, because a live rear-view or loop-playback image visible from the driver’s seat is exactly the video display the subsection is written about.

The nearest thing Colorado offers to an express windshield allowance is § 42-4-227 (1)(b), which permits nontransparent material to be applied, installed or affixed to the topmost portion of the windshield if the bottom edge extends no more than four inches from the top, the material is not red or amber and does not distort perception of primary colors, and it adds no glare for oncoming drivers. That provision is written for applied material such as a sun strip rather than for a mounted device, but it tells you how much of the top of a Colorado windshield the General Assembly was willing to treat as expendable: four inches. Keeping the camera body inside that band, behind the mirror, is the conservative reading.

If the dash camera is a phone rather than a dedicated unit, § 42-4-239 applies as well. That section was rewritten by SB 24-065 and the current version took effect on January 1, 2025 for conduct on or after that date. It bars using a mobile electronic device while operating a motor vehicle, and "use" is defined at (1)(f) as physically holding the device or pinning it to the ear for voice communication, watching a video or movie on it "other than watching data related to the navigation of the motor vehicle", or writing, sending or reading text-based communication. A phone sitting in a mount and recording is not being held, so it is not "use"; watching its live image is squarely within (1)(f)(II). Two limits soften the section: subsection (5) says it does not apply to an individual with a commercial driver’s license operating a commercial vehicle, and subsection (6) makes it effectively secondary, since a driver may not be cited unless a law enforcement officer saw the device use cause the driver to drive carelessly and imprudently as prohibited by § 42-4-1402. A factory-integrated camera escapes the section entirely, because (1)(d)(II)(F) excludes systems designed for and installed within the vehicle’s electronics.

On audio, Colorado is a one-party consent state and the recording driver is doubly safe. Section 18-9-304 (1) makes eavesdropping an offense only for a person "not visibly present during a conversation or discussion" who knowingly records it without the consent of at least one principal party. A driver sitting in the car recording the cabin is visibly present and is also a party, so neither branch is engaged. Eavesdropping is a class 2 misdemeanor, carrying up to 120 days and a fine of not more than $750 under C.R.S. § 18-1.3-501 (1)(a.5) for conduct on or after March 1, 2022.

Any violation of § 42-4-201, including the video display rule at (3) and the obstructed-vision rule at (4), is a class A traffic infraction under subsection (8). § 42-4-1701 (4)(a)(I)(D) sets the assessment for § 42-4-201 at a $35 penalty plus a $10 surcharge, which is more than double the $15 and $6 charged for most equipment sections in that table, and § 42-4-1701 (3)(a)(I) allows $15 to $100 on entry of judgment. Where the camera is a phone, § 42-4-239 (4)(a) sets a graduated fine: $75 plus a $10 surcharge for a first offense within the preceding twenty-four months, $150 plus $10 for a second, and $250 plus $10 for a third or subsequent.

Section 42-4-239 (4)(b) gives a one-time escape: the charge may be dismissed by the court clerk if the driver produces a hands-free accessory or proof of purchase of one and affirms under penalty of perjury that no charge has previously been dismissed on that basis. If the device use proximately causes bodily injury or death, (4)(c) and (4)(d) raise the offense to a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense. Enforcement happens at the roadside, since Colorado has no periodic safety inspection; § 42-4-203 (1) allows a uniformed officer on reasonable cause to require a driver to stop and submit the vehicle and its equipment to inspection.