2010-09-20 16:14

HEFEI -- Han Yun said she felt unsettled when she discovered a black camera in front of a passenger seat of the taxi she was riding in.

"It makes me uncomfortable, I feel like I'm being watched all the time," she complained. Han is among a raft of residents in Wuhu City of east China's Anhui Province who are against the installation of the cameras.

Under a plan mapped out by the Taxi Management Department of Wuhu City, a device combining global positioning and camera will be installed in all of the city's 3,024 taxies by mid-October.

Yao Aihui, director of the Taxi Management Department, said the camera would be activated when a driver switched on the taximeter. Audio-visual recordings would be made of each trip.

"If the taxi driver becomes in danger, he can push an alarm button in the taxi, and the surveillance center will be alerted immediately. Meanwhile, a distress signal -- 'Being robbed, please call the police' -- will appear on the LED screen at the rear of the taxi," Yao said.

The surveillance center and police alarm system are linked so the police can know what's going on inside the taxi, find the taxi's position and take quick action if need be.

"Although crimes in taxis are not very common in the city, being a taxi driver is a high risk job, especially at nights. We hope to use the device to deter crime and better protect the drivers," said Yao.

Li Ning, a local taxi driver, supported the installation of the cameras. "Working at nights can be very dangerous for us. Without such protection, I would avoid  taking drunk men and idle punks. Those people might cause trouble and could even jeopardize the drivers' life," he said.

The device has been quite popular with taxi drivers, which can be partly attributed to its installation being free as advertising on the LED screens at the rear will cover it.

Wang Yuanyuan, an employee of a public institution, is one of a few residents who supported the move, as she thought the monitoring would help passengers retrieve their goods left behind in taxis.

This idea was confirmed by the Taxi Management Department. Yao said that through a GPS monitoring platform, police can locate a taxi within five minutes after receiving an emergency call, including its route, time and speed. If a passenger forgot to get the taxi fare receipt, police can find the taxi based on the time of drop-off and destination.

Even so, most residents oppose the move. Yang Yu, a university student of Wuhu City, questioned whether there wasn't another way to keep taxis safe.

"I feel like I'm being watched by someone, and my privacy violated. I think there must be more passenger-friendly ways," said Yang.

Lawyer Wang Jun with the Huida Law Firm of Anhui Province told Xinhua that taxis were different from other public transport means such as buses and subway trains. "Taxis are a more personal transport means, because passengers pay for the particular time in the taxi," he said.

If passengers' audio-visual records were disclosed or spread for profits, then the passenger's privacy and other rights would be violated, said Wang.

According to the Taxi Management Department, all relevant records will be kept for a month. Only police officers can request to see the camera recording when necessary.