SECURITY STAKEOUT
WATFORD’S CABBIES TRIAL CCTV TO KEEP AN EYE ON SAFETY
Taxi drivers in Watford are running a trial CCTV scheme in their cars in an attempt to make their jobs safer. The Hackney Carriage Drivers’ Association is working with a private company to install cameras in two of its cars as part of a six-
week trial.
The association had hoped that after the trial period the council would fund cameras to be installed in all of the 290 taxis.
However the council has said it cannot pay for the cameras to be fitted as taxi driving is
a private business. Cllr Jan Brown, chair- man of licensing at Watford Borough Council, told the Wat- ford Observer: “The council’s role is to license taxis and not to provide CCTV cameras within private busi- nesses.”
LEGISLATION CHANGED IN MANCHESTER TO ACCOMMODATE CCTV
A vehicle security spe- cialist has succeeded in its campaign to change legislation in Manchester.
The Stockport-based company has worked with Manchester’s licensing committee to change the rules so all taxis in the city will be able to carry cameras filming the road ahead. Images from the cam- eras will be able to determine blame in the event of an accident, and the company is working with insurance companies to offer dis- counted insurance premiums to drivers who install the system. It has taken 15 months to get the legislation changed, with the main
stumbling block being the Data Protection Act. It forbids employees of businesses which are filming the public being able to access those images privately. But images recorded by the system are only accessible by the com- pany, the driver’s insurer or the police, and the driver cannot view them themselves. The change in legisla- tion comes into effect from December 1 and applies to all of Man- chester’s private hire and hackney cabs, of which there are more than 3,000.
Sales boss Dave McIn- tyre said: “Previously, the legislation said that taxis can have cameras
facing inside the vehi- cle, but not facing outside.
“The intention was to bring about a change in the legislation in Manchester, which now sets a precedent for other local authorities. “We are now working with a large insurance company to give driver discounts of up to 15 per cent if they have a camera installed.” The city’s licensing committee decided to approve the change on the grounds that it would bring cost bene- fits for the trade in the form of reduced insur- ance premiums. That could help create jobs, with each taxi employ- ing up to three drivers.
HUDDERSFIELD MAN CAUGHT ON CCTV GIVES HIMSELF UP
Recently the Hudders- field Examiner issued CCTV images of a man who assaulted a taxi driver. The images were taken from the taxi’s camera which was funded by Kirklees Council. It showed the man who set upon the 37-year- old taxi driver. The rear window of the taxi was
also damaged.
On 8th September a 20-year old man fully admitted the offence and the matter was resolved by way of a community resolution. The culprit paid for the damage and will now face no further action. As reported in last month’s PHTM, Kirk- lees councillors ag-
reed to fund CCTV cameras for taxis and approved £28,000 for 100 devices to prevent theft, abuse and assault against drivers. There are about 1,800 cabbies in Kirklees and the cameras have been shared out between hackney car- riage drivers and private hire firms.
OXFORD CABBIES ACCEPT MANDATORY CCTV WILL NOW HAPPEN
Strike action threat- ened by Oxford cab drivers over the intro- duction of CCTV cameras in their cars is unlikely, a driver’s union said last month. The move to introduce a pair of CCTV cam- eras into the back of all cabs has been rub- ber-stamped by Ox- ford City Council’s general purposes licensing committee. The decision will mean all drivers taking up new licences will have until March to install cameras. Existing taxi drivers – both private hire and hackney - will have until March 2015
to fit the £460 system. Taxi drivers will have to pay for the system, which is being intro- duced to improve driver and passenger safety.
Despite previous threats of strike action and a town hall demonstration held in March by the private hire drivers’ associa- tion over the cost and a belief customers would not welcome the cam- eras, private hire firms backed the council. Aaron Singh, manager of St Aldate’s firm 001, said: “It’s obviously an added fee on top of what drivers are already paying out at the moment, but in terms of safety it’s going to help keep driv- ers and passengers safe. And if somebody accuses somebody of something it will pro- vide some evidence when it’s one person’s word against another.” But he admitted: “I think there is a mixed feeling within the driv- ers.” He said none of the firm’s drivers want- ed strike action.
Qasim Mohammed, of Royal Cars, said: “If the driver or the passenger gets injured it gives the police an easy lead to follow up.”
Ghafoor Khan, chair- man of the private hire drivers’ association, who has said 80 per cent of his union were
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against the cameras, declined to comment. But some hackney driv- ers reacted with anger to the decision. Hack- ney cab owner and driver Bashir Ahmed, of Cowley, who has driv- en a cab for 22 years, said: “This has been forced on us without a proper consultation with the drivers. Should your camera not be working you will be off the road.”
Gulzar Hussain, a hackney cab driver from Cowley, said: “We don’t need it. It’s a safe city, there’s no violence or fighting.” But City of Oxford Licensed Taxi Association secretary Alan Woodward said the CCTV system would protect drivers. He added: “Drivers won’t go on strike, I don’t think. They are all self employed - they would be shooting themselves in the foot. “We’ve had quite a few false complaints ag- ainst drivers and we feel we need to be armed with the correct tools to represent them when something like that happens. Some drivers were initially upset, but if you speak to the nighttime drivers they say ‘I would feel safer with CCTV’. “We’ve negotiated that price down so that the council’s requirements of the system is reduced.”
PHTM NOVEMBER 2011
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