Cab cameras could record everything you do and say

7:10am Monday 7th April 2008

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By Jack Blanchard »

HIDDEN microphones would record all private conversations in the back of Worcester taxis under Big Brother proposals laid out by the head of a key council group.

Labour councillor Simon Cronin, the chairman of Worcester City Council's working party on CCTV in taxis, has told your Worcester News he would like to see every city cab fitted with a device which records both audio and video footage in the back of the cab, for the use of council and police employees.

The council's CCTV working party was set up following a series of brutal attacks on Worcester taxi drivers last year and will spend the coming months considering whether to make Worcester one of the first places in the UK where fitting CCTV equipment is a compulsory condition of obtaining a taxi licence.

The Taxi Drivers Association has reacted angrily to the proposal, suggesting the recording of private conversations would be unpopular with customers.

But speaking after the cross-party group's first meeting, Coun Cronin said: "There are a range of options available to us. Sound recording, I would say, is probably one of the things we will be opting for - without pre-empting the deliberations of our next meeting. If you're going to tackle racist abuse, that's really the only option."

Coun Cronin agreed there would "quite possibly" be privacy concerns among passengers if such equipment was installed in every cab, but added: "It's fair to point out that when people get into the back of a taxi, they are not getting into a private space - it's a public space, licensed by the local authority. People have as much reason to expect to have their privacy protected when they're walking down the high street.

"I think there may need to be a change in perception. If people are walking in a crime hotspot then they will be recorded."

Coun Cronin said it was "unlikely" the cash-strapped council could pay for the recording equipment itself, and that his group would explore a range of other funding possibilities, such as obtaining external money and securing discounts for drivers.

He said: "We haven't absolutely decided it's going to be a condition of the licence. We have to offer a package that's attractive to the taxi drivers otherwise this isn't going to work."

Last year Sheffield City Council reported that a trial scheme to fit CCTV inside 33 of its taxis had brought about a huge reduction in crime.

But Ann Murphy of the Taxi Drivers Association was highly sceptical about the plan. She said: "I think we'd lose trade. Who would want to go home in a cab with their wife or girlfriend with somebody recording the conversation? People aren't going like that.

"I find it very interesting this issue first came up this time last year, just before the elections - and now here we are again. Petrol prices have gone up 40 per cent, there are far too many licensed cabs, yet they won't let us put our fares up.

"How can we now be forced to pay for this too?"

COMMENT: Protect our cabbies - but with caution