EARLY this month, a couple tried to rob a taxi driver in Pasir Ris in the dark hours before dawn.

The woman attempted to choke the cabby while her accomplice punched him in the face. The driver reacted by leaning on the horn with his elbow and the couple fled empty-handed.

While this one could have been worse, such attacks against taxi drivers are on the rise. Last year, there were 49 robberies against cabbies, double the 24 cases of the year before.

ComfortDelGro, the largest taxi operator, said assaults and robberies involving the firm's cabbies tripled to 40 for the first eight months of the year, against 12 for the whole of last year.

There were 30 robberies and 10 assaults, said its spokesman Tammy Tan. She told The Straits Times that the firm may consider installing closed-circuit TV cameras on board its 15,000 taxis.

When some cities in Australia, Canada and the United States did so, taxi-related crimes plummeted by up to 60 per cent.

But before it will take such a step, ComfortDelGro said it would consider the needs of its drivers and the privacy of passengers.

SMRT Taxis, the second largest taxi operator with 3,000 taxis, did not comment on whether it would think about putting cameras in its cabs.

A check with shops in Sim Lim Square revealed that it could cost about $700 to install an infrared camera with a recorder in a vehicle.

Already, the courts have moved to protect cabbies against assaults. In July, Appeals Judge V.K. Rajah tripled the jail time for a businessman who had assaulted a taxi driver last year.

An "unmistakable signal" must be sent out that no such attacks would be tolerated, declared Justice Rajah.

In severe cases, the courts would not shy away from more draconian jail terms, he said, noting that "public transport workers are more vulnerable to criminal violence than their counterparts in most other professions".

The industry regulator, the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said taxi companies were free to consider safety measures, including CCTV systems, for their drivers. It told The Straits Times that it would facilitate in areas it could. But hardware is only part of the answer, said the LTA, noting that taxis are equipped with distress buttons to alert the control room in an emergency.

"Very often, simple preventive measures like educating taxi drivers on dos and don'ts and the appropriate responses to take with potential threats can be very effective," said its spokesman. An example is advising cabbies not to resist armed robbers, to minimise the risk of injury.

Cabby Neil Lee, 56, said that while this advice is sound, sometimes it is the offender who panics and hurts the driver.

"I would gladly have a camera in my taxi because criminals would not dare to rob me then," he said.

Mr Ivan J. Pennu, 48, drove a cab with an infrared camera in Sydney for three years till 2003. It made him feel better to have the device inside.

Now a security officer, he said that there were signs inside and outside the cab indicating that a camera was on-board. The pictures are viewed by the police only if there is an offence so commuter privacy was not compromised.

In fact, taxi user Valerie Wee wonders what people are waiting for.

"There are cameras in the streets, in buses, in MRT trains, so why object to cameras in taxis?" said the 35-year-old administrative officer.

See also:
Not all passengers are threatening
Charged with strangling cabby driver

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 21, 2008.

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