Violence towards taxi drivers sparks CCTV reviewA new discussion about putting CCTV in taxis is to take place in light of a number of attacks on cab drivers in Sheffield.
Representatives from local taxi firms will meet with councillors on the licensing committee on Thursday to discuss the possibility of making it mandatory for all of Sheffield’s cab drivers to record their journeys.
A council report said: “Taxi and private hire drivers work alone, often at night and often in remote places. They also carry money and as a result are vulnerable to assault and abuse.
“Recently in Sheffield, we have encountered a number of attacks on drivers for differing reasons and with differing levels of abuse or violence. Most recently a driver was attacked and lost the vision in one eye, which will ultimately cost him his licence to drive.”
At present, 128 vehicles in Sheffield have been granted consent to install CCTV cameras, out of a total fleet of 2,224. Most of the time, recording only begins if the driver’s panic button has been pressed to indicate he or she is in trouble.
Mercury Taxis’ general manager, Dermot Griffiths, who is attending the meeting, said: “I don’t feel that CCTV is essential as generally most bad behaviour is related to drink or drugs. These people do not generally think before they act – meaning the deterrent aspect of CCTV would be useless.
“Additionally, the cost of a system that would be of sufficient quality to have the desired effect is expensive and there would be a big question as to who would be footing the bill, which would have an effect on prices.”
A standard CCTV system costs about £300, but recordings can only be saved for a limited amount of time. In licensed premises like pubs, recordings must be stored for a minimum of 31 days before they are erased or overwritten. If the same rules applied to taxis, the equipment would cost more than £500.
At the meeting, the current policy and specification will be reviewed. The present policy is that images captured must remain secure at all times, and only authorised officers from the council or police are allowed to view them. Some form of encryption and access code is required to ensure the images are secure. Also, there must be signs letting passengers know if the vehicle has CCTV installed.
Dermot said: “I personally am happy to see it stay as an individual choice, with maybe a subsidy for anyone who would like to have CCTV. During the eight years I have been general manager at Mercury Taxis – which encompasses about 10.5 million taxi journeys – I can’t think of many occasions that would have been prevented or cured by CCTV.”
The review is taking place following a pilot scheme, where 33 vehicles were installed with CCTV. Before the pilot, no drivers had approached the licensing authority requesting consent to install a camera. However, after the pilot, all 33 drivers kept the systems in their cabs.
source:
http://postcodegazette.com/
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