Taxi Driver Online

Cab cameras could record everything you do and say

Worcester News

HIDDEN microphones would record all private conversations in the back of Worcester taxis under Big Brother proposals laid out by the head of a key council group.

Labour councillor Simon Cronin, the chairman of Worcester City Council's working party on CCTV in taxis, has told your Worcester News he would like to see every city cab fitted with a device which records both audio and video footage in the back of the cab, for the use of council and police employees.

The council's CCTV working party was set up following a series of brutal attacks on Worcester taxi drivers last year and will spend the coming months considering whether to make Worcester one of the first places in the UK where fitting CCTV equipment is a compulsory condition of obtaining a taxi licence.

The Taxi Drivers Association has reacted angrily to the proposal, suggesting the recording of private conversations would be unpopular with customers.

But speaking after the cross-party group's first meeting, Coun Cronin said: "There are a range of options available to us. Sound recording, I would say, is probably one of the things we will be opting for - without pre-empting the deliberations of our next meeting. If you're going to tackle racist abuse, that's really the only option."

Coun Cronin agreed there would "quite possibly" be privacy concerns among passengers if such equipment was installed in every cab, but added: "It's fair to point out that when people get into the back of a taxi, they are not getting into a private space - it's a public space, licensed by the local authority. People have as much reason to expect to have their privacy protected when they're walking down the high street.

"I think there may need to be a change in perception. If people are walking in a crime hotspot then they will be recorded."

Coun Cronin said it was "unlikely" the cash-strapped council could pay for the recording equipment itself, and that his group would explore a range of other funding possibilities, such as obtaining external money and securing discounts for drivers.

He said: "We haven't absolutely decided it's going to be a condition of the licence. We have to offer a package that's attractive to the taxi drivers otherwise this isn't going to work."

Last year Sheffield City Council reported that a trial scheme to fit CCTV inside 33 of its taxis had brought about a huge reduction in crime.

But Ann Murphy of the Taxi Drivers Association was highly sceptical about the plan. She said: "I think we'd lose trade. Who would want to go home in a cab with their wife or girlfriend with somebody recording the conversation? People aren't going like that.

"I find it very interesting this issue first came up this time last year, just before the elections - and now here we are again. Petrol prices have gone up 40 per cent, there are far too many licensed cabs, yet they won't let us put our fares up.

"How can we now be forced to pay for this too?"
__________________________________________

What is wrong with the way some of the systems work at the moment, open the door and it records entry into and out of the vehicle and that is it, unless the driver presses the button.

As for the cost of the system, well I might have saved money if I had,had one of these systems in place.

Safeguards good drivers and passengers, and opens the world to bad drivers and passengers.

Of course there are some nobodies that want to protect the bad by pretending to fight for the good.

_________________
IDFIMH

You will lose trade to who?

The buses have CCTV, or you could walk home underneath umpteen CCTV cameras.

_________________
IDFIMH

Drivers should have the right to choose whether or not they have CCTV, it shouldn't be enforced upon them, it would seem certain people are selective on what rights peoples should have...

Can some body tell me.... is that Councillor a GMB sponsored one.
Come on ..JD... in your opinion can this council force Hackney's to comply with such a condition..

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I think if the drivers are fronting the money themselves then you have a valid point.

But if the money is coming via the meter, then it's all or nothing. And in this case I'm an all man.

_________________
IDFIMH

I read a lot of 'ifs and maybes' in that report with a lot of concilliatory language. '...offer a package that's attractive to the taxi drivers otherwise this isn't going to work.' - That sounds like a consultation invitation to me or, at least, a chance to negotiate a scheme.

I'll always be in the freedom of choice camp no matter what it is but my good friend Sussex has a point about mandatory implementation but its not a point of view I share. However, there are probably many who do share his view and I suppose there are many who are of the opinion that a council can make hackney carriage owners install cctv in their cab in the same way they have made them install fire extinguishers and first aid kits. I have my doubts whether the courts would deem cctv as a condition that shares the neutrality as the two items I mentioned. However it is one thing installing it but getting a driver to use it is another.

There will be suggestions made that it comes on automatically but one assumes it can be disabled in some way as to be switched on and off manually either by design or by stealth?

A council cannot make a driver use it because they cannot set conditions on drivers but I'm sure if a council ever did try to make it mandatory installation then they would probably suspend any driver who did turn it off.

Interesting argument which no doubt invokes both the human rights act and the 1998 data protection act, we shall wait and see what transpires in the future because I'm quite sure that at least one council will try and make it mandatory.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.