Dash cams in North Carolina: no windshield mounting rule, but a limit on what you may watch

Start with what North Carolina does not have. Part 9 of Article 3 of Chapter 20 is the state's vehicle equipment code, and its sections run through size and weight, tires, trailers, steering, brakes, horns, directional signals, mirrors, windows and windshield wipers, exhaust, lighting, safety glass, seat belts, airbags and child restraints. Only two of those touch the windshield at all. G.S. 20-127 governs wipers and tint, and G.S. 20-135 requires safety glass in doors, windows, windshields, wings and partitions on any vehicle built on or after January 1, 1936. There is no North Carolina counterpart to the windshield obstruction statutes that other states use to police mounted devices, and no enumerated list of items permitted on the glass. A suction cup or adhesive dash cam mount is therefore not an offense in this state simply because of where it sits.

Two adjacent provisions still set outer edges. G.S. 20-127(b) permits nothing to be applied to the windshield except tint along the top, within five inches or the AS1 line whichever is longer, and an untinted clear film that reduces ultraviolet radiation, so the only regulated thing you may attach to the glass is film. G.S. 20-126(a) requires an inside rearview mirror that gives the driver a clear, undistorted and reasonably unobstructed view of the highway to the rear, so a camera or screen packed in behind the mirror must not defeat that view. And G.S. 20-140.2, in Part 10, reaches a vehicle so loaded or crowded with passengers or property that the operator's view of the highway is obstructed, which is aimed at cargo and occupants rather than at a device on the glass.

The live rule for dash cams is G.S. 20-136.1, headed "Location of television, computer, or video players, monitors, and screens." It prohibits driving a motor vehicle on a public street or highway or public vehicular area while viewing any television, computer, or video player which is located in the vehicle at any point forward of the back of the driver's seat and which is visible to the driver while operating the vehicle. Two elements matter: the device has to be forward of the back of the driver's seat, which is where a windshield mounted camera always is, and the driver has to be viewing it. Mere presence of a screen is not the offense.

The exemption list is closed and specific, which is what makes it useful. The section does not apply to global positioning systems; to turn by turn navigation displays or similar navigation devices; to factory installed or aftermarket global positioning systems or wireless communications devices used to transmit or receive data as part of a digital dispatch system; to equipment that displays audio system information, functions, or controls, or weather, traffic, and safety information; to vehicle safety or equipment information; or to image displays that enhance the driver's view in any direction, inside or outside of the vehicle. That last category is the one a dash cam lives in. A camera showing the live forward or rear view is an image display enhancing the driver's view, and a rear view or blind spot camera plainly is. Playing back recorded footage on the same screen while driving is a different act, and nothing in the list covers it. The practical answer in North Carolina is to leave the camera in live view or with the screen timed off while moving. Two further carve outs sit at the end of the section: it does not apply to law enforcement or emergency personnel in the performance of their official duties, or to the operator of a vehicle that is lawfully parked or stopped, so reviewing footage at the roadside after a collision is outside the section entirely.

The section is older than the technology. It came from 1949, c. 583, s. 4, when the target was a television set, and it was rewritten by S.L. 2009-376, s. 13, which added the computer and video player language along with the navigation, dispatch and image display exemptions. It sits alongside, but is independent of, North Carolina's phone rules in G.S. 20-137.4A, which prohibits text messaging and email while driving for all drivers, and G.S. 20-137.3, which bars drivers under 18 from using a mobile telephone at all while the vehicle is in motion.

Audio is the part drivers most often get wrong. A dash cam that records cabin sound is capturing an oral communication, and North Carolina handles that under G.S. 15A-287(a), which makes it a Class H felony to intercept a wire, oral or electronic communication without the consent of at least one party to the communication. North Carolina is a one party consent state, so a driver who is present and part of the conversation supplies the consent the statute requires, and no passenger notice is needed. The exposure arises where the driver is not a party, for example a camera left running with cabin audio in an unattended vehicle while others sit and talk in it. Rideshare and delivery drivers who record continuously should note that the consent that protects them is their own presence, not a sticker on the window.

S. S. S. 00) because the section sets no specific punishment. An infraction is a noncriminal violation in North Carolina, so there is no jail exposure and no criminal record, though court costs are added to the penalty. Because the offense turns on the driver viewing the screen, the practical evidence is the officer's observation of what was on the display and where the driver was looking, not the presence of the mount. S. 3(a) lists the nine items a safety inspection covers, and a camera or its mount is not among them.

The audio side carries the real risk. S. S. 15A-287(a)(3) and (4) extend the same grade to willfully disclosing or using the contents of a communication obtained that way. S. 00) a day for each day of violation or one thousand dollars ($1,000), whichever is higher, plus punitive damages and a reasonable attorneys' fee.