Naturally I was frightened and its not the sort of thing you should have to put up with in this job but unfortunately these days it seems to be part of the job description.
The thing is, If it wasn't for CCTV in the cab then this idiot may well have got away with this. I contacted the police and they took a statement and looked at the CCTV footage which they seized as evidence.
What do you think. Should all taxis be fitted with CCTV or is this an infringement of human rights and an invasion of privacy. The reason I ask this is that last weekend I had a young lad get in the cab and he asked if what he saw was a CCTV camera. I told him it was and he immediately told me that he didn't want to be on camera and to let him out the car. He did pay the fare but seemed reluctant to be on camera. Perhaps he had something to hide.
To me, Its my car and if I want to fit a camera in it and film then I should have every right to do so and if passengers dont like the idea of themselves being on camera then thats their problem. They have the choice. They dont have to travel in the cab. I have signs in prominent places in the vehicle stating that CCTV is recording images for safety.
Read the full story about the taxi court case below. Double click to enlarge
6 comments:
I'm a big believer in protecting civil liberties and such. but in places where you can't have more officers, a camera seems to make sense. As long as it is a camera that records on a loop, where it is only saved at the end of the day if something occurred, it doesn't seem to be much of an infringement of rights. Especially since you have stickers that notify the rider.
NYC: The camera recoirds onto a memory card and every 65 minutes the images are recorded over using a first in first out type method so no images are stored meaning that if an incident happens then I have 60 minutes or so to save the data on the card. Usually what I do is carry a spare card and change it should something happen The system also has a panic button which marks the part of the recording for easy retrieval, The CCTV is a very complex piece of equipment and does a whole host of other things that I cant go into here. It is GPS based and has the ability to record both wahts happening in the cab and also whats happening in front of the cab. Ideal for accident reconstruction so it serves more than one purpose.
Yes every taxi should have a recording device.
I had a girl accuse me of verbal abuse, she was as high as a kite.
I got an apology she went on the police computer. Without the video I would have been fined for sure.
I've just got a dummy webcam in my car,occasionally someone gets in,see's it and get's back out again.Not a problem to me !
what a sad life you have that lad said he was sorry no need to make a web page about it you cock sucker
In Australia, every taxi has a camera, and every taxi has a sign on the outside of the doors saying "You will be photographed". If you don't like it, don't get in.
I'm a passenger and I have no issue at all. You guys should be kept safe.
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