‘Panic switches’ to be allowed in Wolverhampton taxis for extra protection after driver killing

Wolverhampton Council is set to remove a ban to allow taxi drivers to momentarily record audio from inside their cabs using a ‘panic switch’ if they feel in danger.

Wolverhampton cab driver Anakh Singh was attacked and killed over a fare in 2022.

More than 300 crimes involving Wolverhampton taxis were recorded in 2019 by West Midlands Police.

Thirty-six-year-old Tomasz Margol was jailed for 10 years for manslaughter in 2023 after punching, kicking and headbutting Mr Singh in Nine Elms Lane before leaving him to die.

Mr Singh and Margol had been arguing over a £5.80 taxi fare, which had been paid online but had not shown up on the taxi driver's system, when he arrived at the Nine Elms Road property in Park Village.

Taxi drivers can install CCTV cameras in their vehicles, although it is not mandatory, but are currently banned from continuously recording audio.

The local authority’s regulatory committee meets on Wednesday, March 12.

A six-week consultation on the plans received more than 1,300 responses with 88 per cent believing the move would better protect passengers and 96 per cent agreeing it would improve protection for drivers. Around 70 per cent of drivers responding to the consultation said they were likely to install the audio recording equipment.

Some councils have already given drivers permission to install ‘panic buttons’ which start recording if a driver feels in danger. Wolverhampton Council said the equipment must be installed by a professional or the driver’s taxi licence would be reviewed.

The council said following the killing of Mr Singh in 2022, as well as other attacks on drivers in Coventry and Solihull, it was reviewing its position on audio recording as part of plans to greater protect drivers from violent attacks.

Until then, the council had opposed allowing taxi drivers to continuously record audio in cabs, saying that recording conversations would be “highly intrusive to people’s data rights and unjustified in meeting the purpose of preventing and evidencing crimes".

Wolverhampton Council installed a panic switch in one taxi as part of a pilot scheme. The system is used by Rotherham Council, which was one of the first local authorities to allow audio recording in licence taxis, following the child exploitation scandal.

Wolverhampton would join councils in Sheffield, Guildford, York, Cambridge, and Southampton to introduce taxi audio recording.