IN THE NEWS NO PLACE FOR HATE
FOR DRIVERS IN NOTTINGHAM NIGHT TIME ECONOMY
Not in Nottingham is a Nottingham Business Improve- ment District (BID) initiative funded by the Home Office designed to tackle the issue of hate crime in Notting- ham city centre particularly in the evening and at night. The cam- paign is aimed at pubs, clubs, fast food outlets and transport centres. Taxi drivers are par- ticularly vulnerable to hate crime due to their night time working, but also because a high pro- portion of drivers are from black and ethnic minority groups. Without preventa- tive measures such as cab cameras, drivers and cus- tomers can feel vulnerable and many people have said that they would be unlikely
to report incidents of hate crime. Drivers are being encouraged to re- port experiences of hate crime using:
www.report-it.org.uk or simply by calling 101 (or 999 in an emergency). Reporting can be anonymous and can be initiated by a third-party wit- ness or bystander. Reporting hate crime will help to: • Prevent escala- tion
• Prevent repeat incidents
• Identify patterns and nature of offending
• Identify preven- tative actions
• Enable victims to receive support
• Reduce the num- ber of incidents that cause high levels of trauma and distress
• Create safer com- munities
• Build on intelli-
gence to design interventions.
Below is a police report of a recent case in Nottingham which was resolved by using restorative justice. Whilst working the night time econo- my in Nottingham city centre, a taxi driver encountered a drunken female in the street. Initially she obstructed his progress, but then hit out at his wing mirror causing damage, whilst telling the driver to: “F**k off back to your own country”.
EDINBURGH PH BOSS ‘ASTOUNDED’ BY DRIVERS’ SAFETY ACCUSATIONS
Private hire drivers in Edinburgh have hit back at accusa- tions by taxi drivers that their trade compromises pas- senger safety – as council officials investigate whether to cap the number of vehicles operat- ing in the city. Last month, council- lors agreed to investigate capping the number of pri-
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vate hire cars oper- ating in the Scottish capital after listen- ing to an appeal from taxi trade union bosses. But now one firm, Edinburgh City Pri- vate Hire Ltd, has called for any deci- sion over capping the number of pri- vate hire vehicles by Edinburgh City Council to be based on “factual informa-
tion” as they refuted claims previously made by taxi union officials. In a letter sent to all 63 city councillors, Kevin Woodburn, director of Edin- burgh City Private Hire, has questioned information which was presented by the Unite black cab branch at last month’s full council meeting.
The suspect walked away but the driver followed her and called Notting- hamshire Police who immediately attended the scene and detained the suspect. As the suspect was drunk at the time of the offence, she was driven home by officers who then resolved the matter over the fol- lowing weeks. Although the racial abuse was a crime, the police are vic- tim led and are guided by them most of the time in how they want to resolve an issue such as this. Some people just want an apology and don’t want the hassle of providing a state- ment and going to court. This allowed the driver to carry on working on a busy night rather than having to stay with officers and pro- vide a statement. The driver could have pressed charges if he want- ed to as the offence was racially aggra-
vated s.4a public order act which is intentional harass- ment, alarm or distress. The police asked the taxi driver what he wanted to do in relation to the mat- ter and he chose to give the perpetra- tor a chance to apologise. In a situ- ation such as this, police officers have the power to use a process known as restorative justice. This gives the per- petrator an op- portunity to reflect on their actions and apologise to the victim. This enables the victim to choose to resolve the incident away from more formal processes such as a trial at court. It is a useful tool espe- cially when victims may be hesitant about making a statement. In this case the perpetrator was very apologetic about the incident and wrote a letter to the driver apolo- gising for her actions. The driver accepted the apol- ogy and the matter was
re-solved.
Whilst this is an alternative way of resolving these matters it is not a free pass, any inci- dent will be recorded on police systems and can be disclosed as part of any future en- hanced DBS check.
NPHTA comment: Where to start: Every PHTM reader knows that this sort of hate crime (more often than not racially motivated) goes on all over the UK. Early on in the report, “cab cam- eras” are men- tioned: you know our views on the matter of CCTV in licensed vehicles. We have document- ed proof (as re- ported in our Glas- gow security feat- ure in last month’s PHTM, for example) that the presence of CCTV in taxis and PHVs lowers the incidence of the type of occurrence described in this Nottingham report. CCTV also reduces dramatically the false allegations that proliferate am-ongst taxi/PHV passen- gers, especially when they’re in their cups – or worse. We would ask this: Is restorative justice strong enough? – or does that just allow the same perpetra- tors off the hook so they can behave in a similar manner with other drivers in the future? Anybody can say “I’m sorry” – especially an alco- holic – and it means nothing the next day. Surely there should be some punitive deterrent in place for these idiots to curtail their offensive (and worse) behaviour.
JANUARY 2020
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