Cabbies stay safe

ADT'S cameras have been installed into taxi cabs to protect drivers in an innovative scheme run by Kirklees Metropolitan Council and West Yorkshire Police. Cameras have been installed into six cabs and it has been so successful that nearly 100 more local drivers have shown an interest in getting cameras in their cabs.

Taxi drivers working alone, often throughout the night, have little choice about which locations they find themselves in. They also have no prior knowledge about their customers and are unaware of whether they are intent on violence towards them. Taxi and private hire car drivers suffer the highest rates of non-fatal assaults next only to police and private security guards*.

The latest technology from ADT hopes to change that, by acting as a visual deterrent and providing a means of identification and prosecution of criminals.

Robert Pogson, Field Sales Manager for ADT, explains how the system works: "The FareView digital camera is mounted on the car windscreen, under the rearview mirror and has a wide angle lens, allowing it to view passengers in the front and back of the cab.

"The camera is also infrared, so that it can see in the dark. Although the camera can run constantly by overwriting itself, there are two features: it can be set to be activated when people enter and exit the taxi and there's a panic mode which, when activated, takes six still images which are locked into the memory.

"Those images can then be downloaded to a hard drive out of customers' reach and when complaints are made to the police, viewing can take place. This would only be undertaken in private and in police presence, at the CCTV monitoring centre at Flint Street in Huddersfield. Those images can then be used for prosecution purposes, if necessary."

Visual deterrent
As well as helping to catch criminals, the cameras aim to stop crimes before they happen. The cabs that have the cameras installed carry stickers warning customers, which will provide peace of mind to the drivers and also put a stop to crimes against cabbies.

Robert continues; "We're proud of the technology and it's great to see how well the trial has gone in Kirklees. There is such a need for it that I have no doubt it will catch on in a big way."

Douglas Holliday, Group Licensing Officer at Kirklees Council and representative on the National Association of Taxi Private Hire Licensing Enforce-ment Officers explains why he backed the scheme. "Although there has never been a fatal attack against a cabbie in Kirklees, there have been alarming incidents reported in the press throughout the North, so safety is an issue we simply can't ignore.

"In the driver training sessions that we conduct, we point out some of the dangers of driving a cab, which can include threats and acts of physical violence against drivers. When we discussed the option to install cameras in the cabs, a large majority of the drivers expressed an interest and it was then that we organised the trial.

"The main benefit to ADT's cameras is their size, they're small enough not to impair the driver's vision in any way, yet visible enough to act as a deterrent. I think that having this security is a real asset to hackney carriage drivers, who may be working alone, without the benefits of mobile communication."

Community Safety Officer, Mrs Wendy Ashleigh-Reynolds, added that she was delighted that more drivers were now to be offered protection.

She said: "The partnership's crime and disorder strategy is all about reducing crime and the fear of crime in Kirklees. Installing these cameras should prove an important deterrent to crime, and we are very pleased to have been able to help." 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1998

ADT Fire and Security is the UK's leading fire and security company. It is part of Tyco Fire & Security, one of the major business units of Tyco International Ltd. Tel 01932 743333, fax 01932 743155.