Connecticut, New Orleans and Portland become the latest jurisdictions to select or approve the VerifEye G5 TaxiCam
Portland has become the latest jurisdiction to upgrade all their taxis with the G5 TaxiCam, receiving a 15% trade-in allowance for their 7-year old G4 TaxiCams. Connecticut has also selected the G5 TaxiCam and is in the process of rolling it out. In 2012, New Orleans became the first jurisdiction in the US to mandate a forward facing camera (in addition to a safety camera). To date, 1,150 of the approximately 1,400 taxis operating in New Orleans have been equipped with the G5 TaxiCam (with a large proportion of those G5 TaxiCam systems also providing real-time event reporting via the taxi MDT system). The latest G5 TaxiCam systems are improved versions of the G5 TaxiCams that were first specified by American United Taxicab in Wisconsin.
In March of 2010, American United began installing the latest G5 TaxiCams in their cabs; on 3 April 2010, an American United taxi driver was robbed at gunpoint. Milwaukee police immediately downloaded pictures of the crime from the driver's camera and, due to the clarity of the images, an arrest was made within a few hours. The suspect confessed and implicated a number of accomplices as well as confessing to a number of previous crimes targeting taxi drivers. A year later, the number of reported incidents had declined by more than 90% and that reduction in taxi crime has been maintained. American United Taxicab is the largest taxi company in Wisconsin, and now they can boast of being one of the safest as well.
The G5 TaxiCam boasts the same high standards of image quality delivered by earlier generations of VerifEye safety cameras, but in a much smaller camera housing. Optional integrated g-force sensors and high fidelity microphones are available for the G5 cameras, together with real-time reporting of all recorded events. These optional features are typically specified by operators of large taxi fleets as well as courier fleets, school buses and police vehicles.
As of January 2013, VerifEye had sold over 100,000 TaxiCam systems to taxis, limousines, shuttles and paratransit vehicles around the world. In addition to taxis, VerifEye sells cameras and CCTV systems for other land transportation and mobile applications such as courier fleets, armored cars, school buses, transit buses and trains, as well as to government agencies, such as police, other law enforcement, ambulance and fire services.
