cheahsoonhai

Gerakan reserve about CCTV's in cabs

Dr Cheah Soon Hai hopes cost will not be passed to passengers  

Press statement by

Gerakan Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman

Dr Cheah Soon Hai  

1 April 2013   

Gerakan Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman, Dr Cheah Soon Hai voiced his reservation about the ideas from SPAD to install CCTV's and panic buttons into taxi to increase the safety of passengers.   

"It is encouraging to see the government trying to do something in order to safeguard the wellbeing of passengers after several high profile cases involving taxi drivers for the past months."

He stressed that at the same time, by installing these security features, we hoped that it can also safeguard the safety of our taxi drivers when there were also previous cases where cab drivers themselves have become a crime victim.

Despite the encouraging news, Dr Cheah who is also Kedah Derga state-assemblyman remains reserved about several issues that needed attention before the idea receives a go-ahead.

"One of the main issues that concerned me is the cost of installing these security cameras, better known as CCTV. Will it be the taxi company or government that bears the installation cost? I am worried that if not stated clearly, cab drivers might be inclined to pass the installation cost to passengers by increasing the fee. This is unfair to the passengers with the ever increasing cost of living."

"The second issue that needs attention is where does the CCTV recordings goes. If the recordings were kept in a hard-disk located in the cab itself, there is a possibility of the recordings being erased without a backup copy. If that is the case, what is the point of installing it in the first place?"

Finally, Dr Cheah hoped that a tougher screening might be implemented by taxi companies to enable only genuine taxi drivers to be able to drive their cabs.