Fighting Crime From Above?

In an move that will be inevitable for taxis everywhere, the city of Glasgow is making it mandatory for all taxi cabs to have surveillance cameras.   According to The Herald:

Passengers hiring any of the 1000-plus fleet of taxis in Scotland's largest city could soon be caught on CCTV, amid concerns of potential legal action due to infringement of civil liberties and human rights.

The move, which is designed to enhance the safety of both drivers and the public, could be implemented by the end of the year and extended into the hundreds of private hire cars also operating in Glasgow.

The use of CCTV cameras and recording equipment would bring Glasgow into line with Manchester, Liverpool, Gateshead and London, as well as East Renfrewshire Council, the first authority in Scotland to permit their use.

It comes on the back of a recent survey, carried out by the Scottish Government, which found one in three taxi drivers has been assaulted at work and the case of John Worboys, the London taxi driver, recently jailed for drugging female passengers by spiking champagne and then sexually assaulting them.

The council said: "The installation of CCTV equipment in taxis and private hire cars may increase the sense of safety felt by passengers and drivers. Installation may also have a positive impact on reducing crime and antisocial behaviour. However, images captured must be stored in a way which maintains the integrity of the image.

"Protection to passengers and drivers due to the installation of CCTV cameras must be balanced against the potential infringement of civil liberties and human rights by the recording of a person's activities."

Trials in East Renfrewshire were carried out earlier this year, including one in the cab of a driver who had been the subject of a serious assault while working in January.

When a vehicle was fitted with a CCTV system, orange A5-size warning notices were fixed to the vehicle and the drivers asked to ensure that all passengers travelling in their vehicles were informed of the operation of the CCTV system.

No complaints have been received about the use of the systems and the council claims the scheme appears to have been welcomed.

But Robert Dunabie, of Glasgow TOA Taxis said: "This is an advantageous scheme for drivers and passengers. It will improve the overall feeling of security within the cab but it would have to be a system which drivers could not tamper with."

Taxi cabs are a logical place to install surveillance cameras.  As the article states, the purpose of the cameras is to keep both the driver and passenger safe from anti-social behaviour.  In the close quarters of a taxi cab, these cameras have the potential to deter bad behaviour and can provide valuable insight into certain situations.

In NYC, Mayor Bloomberg forced taxi drivers to install real-time credit card systems which also serve a second purpose – to track and record movements of taxi drivers.  In one case, a man left his violin behind, called 311, and the taxi was tracked using GPS

Because of the new Global Positioning System technology installed in cabs, customers no longer need to remember the medallion number in case they lose an object. Instead, the commission can figure out from its records which cab took the customer along a given route, Mr. Daus said.

Finding the violin took less than an hour. The cabdriver — who had gone home to New Jersey — hadn’t yet realized the instrument was in his car, said Matthew W. Daus, the chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

“We cut the driver out of the picture,” he said. “This is kind of a first in that respect.”

These combined technologies – surveillance cameras, credit card transactions, and GPS will provide trackability and evidence in case anything bad happens during the ride.  When cities pass laws that require business owners to own and maintain surveillance cameras, the taxpayer does not usually foot the bill and is able to reap the benefits of the installation. For this reason I am a big fan of these public-private initiatives.