Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers get CCTV protection

SHEFFIELD taxis are to be fitted with CCTV cameras to end the constant threat of violence to drivers.

Cameras are being fitted to 33 cars - 25 private hire and eight black cabs - for a trial during the height of the Christmas and New Year party season. If the pilot scheme proves successful, owners will be encouraged to install the system in all the city's 1,700 taxis.

Black cab driver Raja Nadeem Shafi has just returned to work months after being beaten up by four men he had driven from Sheffield to Rotherham.

They slammed his head against the steering wheel, fracturing his cheek, before running off.

"They didn't even steal anything, but they have left me so scared I won't work after dark," he said. Raja is one of the first drivers to benefit from the £7,000 pilot, paid for by the Sheffield Safer Communities Partnership and supported by Sheffield Council and South Yorkshire Police.

"I will be more confident with the camera," said Raja. "The men who beat me up got away with it because I wasn't able to give police a good description."

The new cameras record the driver and passengers on footage that can be used in court and to help police track down offenders.
The police are 100 per cent behind any creative schemes to improve taxi safety.

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