News

Spy camera to bring back scared cabbies


31/ 8/2004

MANCHESTER police and council leaders hope new spy in the cab cameras will persuade hire drivers to abandon their boycott of the City centre.
Rising violence against taxi and private hire drivers cars has led to some steering clear of the centre on crowded Friday and Saturday nights and especially during the early hours, just when hundreds of thousands of revellers are looking for a ride home.
Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Police have launched a crime-busting scheme which will see cameras installed in 19 black taxis and private hire vehicles.
If successful it could be rolled out to the 2,800 cabs registered in the city.
Each of the £500 cameras automatically takes a series of stills whenever passengers get into the vehicle and then takes regular snaps during the journey. If the driver has concerns about particular passengers, or if an incident occurs, the driver can over-ride the system so 250 snaps are taken in quick succession.
The images are stored on a hard drive in the cab which can only be accessed by the council or the police.
A sign in the cab will warn passengers that they are being filmed.
Barry Carter has been a taxi driver for 33 years and is a member of the Manchester Taxi Owners and Drivers Association committee.
He said: "There's plenty of good money to be made for drivers who work on Friday and Saturday nights, but lots of people are quite frightened - particularly those who have been assaulted once already,"
"Saturday night is the worst and it can be quite frightening - particularly when people have had a lot to drink they can be aggressive.
"Where CCTV cameras have been used they have been shown to reduce assaults, violence and trouble. If this helps to reduce crime then I am in favour of it."
Although the pilot is being funded by the council, if it were to be rolled out cabbies or the companies they work for would have to pay for their own equipment.
The footage from the camera is recorded onto a hard drive, which can hold up to 1000 images at a single time.
Accessing the hard disk requires specialist software, which can only be used by the council or the police.


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