The Sandra Bland dashcam footage was not edited. There are some loops, but that’s common with raw dashcam footage. I’ve uploaded a video using footage from my own dashcam to show it happening.



First, a disclaimer: I haven’t studied every frame of the Sandra Bland dashcam footage. I watched it through and was horrified at the way she was treated.

Earlier today, the raw footage was pulled from YouTube, likely because people are claiming it shows clumsy signs of editing, at around 25 minutes, and again at 32 minutes, and perhaps elsewhere. Even NBC is running a story on it. But those loops are not a sign of editing. They actually suggest that it wasn’t edited. It’s just a side effect of how many dashcams work. Anybody used to working with video cameras might be surprised at the differences.

Dashcams record continuously, but they have limited storage space. They can’t write one very long, ever-increasing movie file. Instead, they record file after file, then erase the oldest files to make space. My own dashcam, a G1W, is set to record in three minute chunks. Others might use seven minutes or fifteen minutes, or perhaps base it on file size instead of the time