Columnist Jeff German: Cabbies deserve protection

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2003 | 10:55 a.m.

If anyone should understand the importance of having solid safety measures in place to protect Las Vegas cabbies, it is Mark Chavez.

The 47-year-old Star Cab driver was shot in the head during a May 9 robbery and has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation ever since.

In his first interview since being shot, Chavez told me he felt for his fellow cabbies who had been terrorized the last several days during a robbery spree reportedly carried out by one of their own, Wagnaw Asagre Getahun, an Ethiopian native.

Getahun, 37, was fired from Star Cab last month after only two days on the job when he allegedly stole money from a day's shift. Prior to that he worked at Whittlesea Blue Cab from Aug. 25, 1998, until June with an unblemished record.

"It's my turn to say some prayers for cab drivers," Chavez said before Getahun surrendered to authorities in L.A. on Monday. "You never want to be in that intensive care unit where I was. It's hell on Earth."

But Chavez -- who spent eight days in a coma and still has about 20 bullet fragments in his head -- knows that it's going to take more than just prayers to improve security for drivers.

It's also going to take more than just meaningless talk, which is what occurred five years ago following a four-month period in which two cabbies were shot to death on the job.

Back then, driver safety became a hot issue too. There was much discussion about installing cameras in taxis and equipping them with bullet-proof shields.

But all the talk turned into hot air. The cabbies strongly opposed both ideas because they thought it would hurt their ability to strike up conversations with their passengers and ultimately cost them tips.

Then came that fateful day when Chavez was shot -- and now the just-ended crime spree linked to Getahun -- and the talk has returned.

Yvette Moore, the administrator of the state Taxicab Authority, is pushing high-tech digital cameras in cabs, and companies like the conglomerate Yellow Checker Star Cab are enthusiastically backing her.

But this time the drivers have to be willing to play ball, too.

If no cameras are installed, drivers will continue to feel unsafe during unsettling times like these. They're going to have a greater tendency to avoid picking up fares in crime-ridden areas or deny passengers a ride based on the color of their skin, which will create even more problems for the tourist-driven industry.

Chavez supports the camera concept, which should mean something in this debate. He knows it wouldn't necessarily have stopped his two teenage assailants, who eventually were arrested. But had there been a camera in his taxi, police would have had solid evidence against his assailants right off the bat.

Moore wants to require taxis to have at least one camera in a cab and a sign posted warning passengers that they are being photographed. With the digital technology, the images taken from the camera would be stored inside electronic equipment hidden elsewhere in the cab, so even if a robber destroyed the camera, the images likely would be protected.

The camera not only would serve as a deterrent but it would help police apprehend the suspect.

What a comforting picture for a cabbie.

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