Black cabs and CRBs

Councils are up in arms over government plans to cut CRB checks for taxi drivers.

The government plans to only request taxi drivers to get ‘standard’ CRBs (which checks for cautions, convictions, or reprimands), rather than ‘enhanced’ CRBs (which includes all other information on local police records, and child protection registers).

Yet it is strange that ‘enhanced’ CRBs as seen as a guarantee of safety. The point about notes on police local computers is that they are unproven – they could be hearsay, or malicious allegations. So such notes are just as likely to incriminate an innocent man as they are to pinpoint a potential attacker.

The releasing of unchecked information about people – which is essentially what happens with enhanced CRBs – actually makes decisions about risk harder, rather than easier.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/councils-condemn-plans-to-cut-rigorous-checks-for-cab-drivers-2336871.html