News of the Taxicab Bandit

So I was a little nervous, I’ll admit it. This week the television and radio had dedicated a surprisingly respectful amount of time to call to attention; a taxicab bandit was on the loose. Just as soon as they announced that he’d been robbing cab drivers at gunpoint for two weeks, the police nabbed him. What’s more the police did it in style, pulling up to his Brooklyn home in an unmarked police taxi.

Some random police taxi
Here is another blogger's picture ( a much better one) of a police taxi: Cabs are for kissing's police taxi post

The federation of NYC taxi drivers says that an average of 10 taxi drivers a day are robbed, and they are demanding more support. This particular robber’s method was to hail a cab from one popular Manhattan neighborhood to another around the midnight hour. He would sit in the front seat. Then he would stick a pistol (a fake semi-automatic handgun) into the driver’s gut and demand the cash.

What I think should be done:

1. It is not so bright to let one lone passenger into the front of the cab with you unless you have a partition between you and the passenger. The solution to this problem is easy; either take away the mandate that passengers have the right to request the front seat. Or more fairly, place partitions that separate the driver from all the other seats, not just the back.

2. We have a secret button to warn others we are in danger, I am not sure if all cabbies even know about it. When pushed, a flashing yellow light pulses through the front grille or outside the grille and also on the trunk lid. It is often pushed by accident, and it’s just as well ‘cause it doesn’t do a damned thing. I think we should have these buttons electronically signal the police and give them our coordinates.

taxi bandit @ NBC the news story is a little different from the commisioner's conferance. This only means that once again, a quick reporting news network forgot to go over the report. Nobody was taken into Brooklyn, or were they?