Understanding taxi robberies
Research
This report - from the COPS series by the US Department of Justice - describes the problem of taxi robbery and reviews factors that increase the risks of robbery of taxi drivers. The guide then identifies a series of questions that might assist you in analyzing your local taxi robbery problem. Finally, the guide reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice.
Title: Robbery of taxi drivers
Author: Martha J Smith
Series: Problem-oriented guides for the police - Problem specific guides series number 34
Date published: May 2005
Number of pages: 88
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One of the biggest barriers to understanding the problem of taxi driver robbery is the lack of data specifically collected on this crime. Most police departments do not record the circumstances surrounding a robbery incident in a way that allows taxi robberies to be identified easily.
Much of what is known about taxi robbery is based on information recorded on assaults and homicides by occupation. This data consistently show that, as an occupation or industry, taxi drivers have the highest or among the highest risk of job-related violence. A U.S. study that did look at robbery victimization data by occupation also found that taxi drivers were among those most often robbed. Even the information that is available, however, is likely to be incomplete. Many drivers work as independent contractors and, as such, may not be eligible for workers compensation (one of the main data sources for studies of occupational assault).
To understand taxi robberies it is necessary to understand the industry in which cab drivers operate. Money earned is related to the number of fares that drivers have in a given shift, the distance they travel, the amount of tips they receive, and the costs of the vehicle (and any fees paid for access to fares via radio dispatch, if they use this service). Robbery depletes driver revenue and has the potential for injury and death. Therefore, drivers must continually balance the competing concerns of increasing revenue through accepting fares and of risking potential revenue loss (and potential physical harm). Knowing how the taxi industry is organized in a particular locality is an important first step in developing a taxi driver robbery problem-solving strategy related to that place.
In general, there are two different types of taxi services:
"hackney" cabs that can pick up fares off the street or from taxi stands (black cabs).
"livery" cabs that must be booked through a central dispatching office (mini-cabs).
Problem-solvers need to look at the types of services offered in the community in order to look for patterns of offending. Some patterns may be typical for only one set of drivers, if more than one type of service operates in that area, particularly if prevention techniques and equipment differ among the different types of services or ownership relationships.
Taxi services are usually regulated by some governmental or quasi-governmental body. Both hackney and livery services may be regulated by the same oversight agency. Common regulatory features of these agencies include:
setting fares,
licensing drivers and vehicles (including regulating the number of vehicles within particular areas),
controlling the conditions of vehicles
monitoring the behavior of drivers.
Police departments may try to set up partnerships among regulatory agencies and industry representatives (including radio-dispatching companies, owners, associations of owners, drivers, driver associations, and labor unions) to help implement problem-solving initiatives. The partners in the problem-solving process may need to understand both how the industry is regulated in an area and the context in which past regulation was implemented before they can begin to assess the best responses to current problems.
While robbery is the primary motive for many attacks some research has found that alcohol plays a role in driver assaults, but it is not clear that these assaults are primarily a subset of robbery-related assaults nor how prevalent they are compared to robbery-motivated assaults.
Some drivers have suggested that driver behavior, such as over-charging, taking the long way around, and aggression or rudeness, may lead to aggression by passengers. It is unclear whether, or how often, this aggression escalates into a later robbery event or whether other types of verbal harassment or hate speech are related to taxi driver robbery. There is some evidence, however, that driver pursuit of fare evaders can result in robbery. Policing agencies may, therefore, find it useful to look carefully at a variety of incidents involving taxi drivers in order to understand the taxi robbery problems in their area.
Policing agencies seeking to limit the number of taxi driver robberies in their area need to try to understand where the links between crimes can be made, as well as how the series of actions in a robbery crime "script" develop and how they relate to prevention schemes. For example, prevention measures, such as safety shields between drivers and passengers, designed to help prevent one type of crime may depersonalize drivers or go against a culture that prizes friendliness, banter, and lack of social divisions. This might result in lower tips and possibly increased fare evasion and vandalism.
Understanding the factors that contribute to your problem will help you frame your own local analysis questions, determine good effectiveness measures, recognize key intervention points, and select appropriate responses.
Taxi drivers are at risk of robbery due to a combination of factors related to the nature of their job:
They have contact with a large number of strangers or people they do not know well.
They often work in high-crime areas.
They usually carry cash with them in an unsecured manner and handle money as payment.
They usually work alone.
They often go to, or through, isolated locations.
They often work late at night or early in the morning.
These risk factors, among others, have been mentioned in a number of studies of workplace homicide and violence in general.
Not all places pose the same degree of danger in relation to these factors, nor do all drivers have the same degree of exposure to these risk factors. For example, even within a given locality, there may be a great deal of variability in the designs and features of the vehicles themselves. Some cabs may be purpose-built vehicles, equipped with driver safety screens, radios, charge card machines, global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking, and digital infrared cameras. Other cabs in that area may have none of these features. One study in Australia found that robberies were most likely to be carried out by young men who were inebriated and hailed the cab from the street or taxi stands. In other places, robberies may be most likely to follow calls to dispatchers by women, with drivers arriving to find a man with a gun and no women. Drivers should be made aware of the common patterns for robberies in their area, but should also be aware that they may not always be able to identify potential robbers or robbery situations before the event unfolds.
Last update: 07 June 2005