Taxi Driver Online

Presumably this applies to PHVs...so to that extent it's a bit odd that this piece doesn't mention the fact that Wolverhampton Council acts a some kind of de facto national licensing authority


'Panic switches' recording audio in Wolverhampton taxis to be allowed after driver killing

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black- ... n-31149233

The move would allow audio to be recorded from inside their cabs using a ‘panic switch’ if they feel in danger

A council is to allow panic switches in taxis as part of measures to protect drivers.

City of Wolverhampton Council is set to remove a ban to allow taxi drivers to momentarily record audio from inside their cabs using a ‘panic switch’ if they feel in danger.

Wolverhampton cab driver Anakh Singh was attacked and killed over a £5.80 fare in 2022.

More than 300 crimes were recorded in 2019 by West Midlands Police that involved Wolverhampton taxis.

36-year-old Tomasz Margol was jailed for 10 years for manslaughter in 2023 after punching, kicking and headbutting Mr Singh in Nine Elms Lane, Wolverhampton before leaving him to die.

Taxi drivers can install CCTV cameras in their vehicles, although it is not mandatory, but are currently banned from continuously recording audio.

The local authority’s regulatory committee meets on March 12.

A six-week consultation on the plans received more than 1,300 responses with 88% per cent believing the move would better protect passengers and 96% per cent agreeing it would improve protection for drivers. Around 70% of drivers responding to the consultation said they were likely to install the audio recording equipment.

Some councils have already given drivers permission to install ‘panic buttons’ which start recording if a driver feels in danger. City of Wolverhampton Council said the equipment must be installed by a professional or the driver’s taxi licence would be reviewed.

City of Wolverhampton Council said following the killing of Mr Singh in 2022, as well as other attacks on drivers in Coventry and Solihull, it was reviewing its position on audio recording as part of plans to greater protect drivers from violent attacks.

Until then, the council had opposed allowing taxi drivers to continuously record audio in cabs saying that recording conversations would be “highly intrusive to people’s data rights and unjustified in meeting the purpose of preventing and evidencing crimes.”

City of Wolverhampton Council installed a panic switch in one taxi as part of a pilot scheme. The system is used by Rotherham Council which was one of the first local authorities to allow audio recording in licence taxis following the child exploitation scandal.

Wolverhampton would join councils in Sheffield, Guildford, York, Cambridge, and Southampton to introduce taxi audio recording.