I understand about fifteen downloads have been sent to the police, or which about ten are being used in investigations. Of course the real value is the deterrence effect. As the Raywood representative noted, the best value for money improvement to the system he would recommend would be to make bigger signs warning passengers they are being photographed. Senior people in the industry that I spoke to have been uniformly happy with the decision and the product. The Taxi Industry Board has not recorded a single complaint, either from industry or passengers.
Drivers also appear to be happy.
He argued that driver behaviour had not changed, that cameras were only useful for serious offences and that the risk of these was so low that it did not justify the expense. In his view the best defence against the more common minor matters was better training and selection of drivers. Another day shift owner-driver said he had not pushed the alarm button in 15 years, but would prefer screens to really protect the driver. But he knew he was in a minority. Three drivers I spoke to about peak period taxis said that they didn't want them originally but now think they are a good way to keep the passengers behaved. .