‘Panic switches’ for Wolverhampton taxis could be considered after driver dies – full details from Silent Crime campaign

Wolverhampton City Council is considering allowing taxi drivers to temporarily record audio from inside cabs using a “panic switch” after city driver Anakh Singh was attacked and killed over a £5.80 fare in 2022.

Tomasz Margol, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter after punching, kicking and headbutting Mr Singh in Nine Elms Lane, Wolverhampton, before leaving him to die.

According to the council, more than 300 crimes were recorded by West Midlands Police in 2019 involving Wolverhampton taxis.

The shocking statistics come as the Express and Star, along with their sister newspapers and websites NationalWorld, launch a campaign against the silent crime to give a voice to victims of under-reported incidents. You can read more below.

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

Some municipalities have already allowed drivers to install “panic buttons” that begin recording if a driver feels in danger.

Wolverhampton City Council said that following Mr Singh’s murder 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 better protect drivers from violent attacks.

So far, the city council has opposed allowing taxi drivers to continuously record conversations in cabs, saying the recording would be “highly intrusive on individuals’ data rights and unjustified in the context of preventing and proving crimes”.

Wolverhampton City Council has installed a panic switch in a taxi as part of a pilot project. The system is being used by Rotherham Council, which was one of the first local authorities to allow audio recording in licensed taxis after the child exploitation scandal.

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

The council’s regulatory committee meets on Wednesday to approve plans for a six-week public consultation.

A final decision is not expected until next year.

The epidemic of silent crimes

According to the latest figures from the Home Office, 6,300 crimes go unsolved every day in Britain.

Government data also shows that two million crimes went unsolved in a single year in the UK, while crimes such as knife crime and shoplifting soared in the same set of statistics.

The relentless daily crime rate has prompted the Shropshire Star, its parent company NationalWorld, and sister websites and newspapers across the country to launch a campaign to give a voice to victims of violence, theft and anti-social behaviour – which so often goes under-reported.

We call this epidemic “silent crime.”

Studies show that we only bother to report four out of ten crimes to the police. If you add these two figures together, it becomes clear that the vast majority of them occur without any repercussions. And it continues.

We want you to tell us about incidents that have happened to you, your family or friends in your neighbourhood; how it has affected you and what justice has been served – or not.

Why don’t we report all crimes and why isn’t the criminal justice system more effective in making criminals pay? It seems to me that trust in the systems that should keep us safe is at an all-time low.

Most of the time, the fault lies not with the police, but with a collapsed welfare system and politicians who have turned a blind eye for decades. This does not mean that urgent measures cannot and should not be taken. It does not have to be this way.

To force change, we must come together and remember that these ‘small’ crimes are not acceptable. You must be safe and feel safe at work, at home, in the park and in your own neighbourhoods. We need you to tell us your stories and we will take them, on your behalf, all the way to Downing Street. We must stop being silent and we need your help.

Join our investigation into silent crime in the Black Country, Staffordshire and Wyre Forest