U.K. cabs to be equipped with CCTVs

Taxis in the Peterborough are to be the first to be fitted with the latest in CCTV technology to improve the safety of passengers and drivers thanks to a new innovative scheme. Tyneside-based iKabs has joined forces with Peterborough City Council and Peterborough’s Hackney cab drivers to deliver the new system. A camera will be fitted at the front of the vehicle and all activity in the car is recorded and encoded on to a disk, securely placed under the driver’s seat. The iKabs cameras cannot be dismantled and the driver does not have to remember to switch it on as it will record automatically. If an incident occurs inside the vehicle, the disk has to be taken to Cambs Constabulary, whose officers are the only people able to download the information. “The great thing about iKabs is that it is supported entirely by advertising, which is displayed on a flat-screen monitor inside the taxi,” said Scott Moran, from iKabs. “It won’t cost the driver or the local authority anything, so no costs are passed on to the passenger or council taxpayer. “We have kept costs so low that a self-employed trader can advertise as well as larger companies and even the multi-nationals. We’ve already had a lot of interest from businesses around Peterborough.”

The company hopes to roll out iKabs nationally after dozens of local authorities around the country showed an interest. Taxis with the technology will display the iKabs logo on the vehicle, which will serve as a deterrent to would-be attackers and also reassure potentially vulnerable passengers that they are safe. Ken Gray, the city council’s principal taxi enforcement officer, said: “This is an exciting project that we are carrying out with all 191 Hackney carriages in Peterborough. The whole point is for the protection of the public and for the driver. The images will be completely secure and can only be downloaded by Cambs Constabulary.”