Editorial: Cab drivers are still in harm’s way

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.

On Tuesday the state Taxicab Authority rejected a regulation that would have required security cameras to be placed in the 2,500 taxis operating in Southern Nevada. Many cab drivers wanted the cameras installed for their protection, and the push for their use appeared to have gained momentum in the wake of a series of robberies and murders since May. But some cab companies opposed the regulation, saying a testing period was needed before they should have to buy the equipment, whose cost ranges from $400 to $1,100 per vehicle. The Taxicab Authority agreed with the companies, ordering a one-year study of the effectiveness of the cameras, ostensibly to consider their worth as a criminal deterrent. One of the Taxicab Authority board members, Lia Roberts, said that in addition to the issue of deterrence, she wanted more information on whether the cameras could frighten away customers who could view them as an invasion of privacy.

Despite the arguments made by the cab companies and the Taxicab Authority, common sense tells us that cameras are needed. Cab drivers, just like employees of convenience stores, are very vulnerable to armed robberies. Cameras certainly will prevent some robberies, including those that end in murder. While cameras aren't a panacea -- crimes inevitably will be committed -- they still would be beneficial if a cab driver was robbed or attacked, providing the police with video to help capture an assailant. As for concerns about privacy, they're phony arguments. Security cameras are everywhere today, particularly in casinos, and that hasn't driven down business in our tourism-based economy. Money -- the cost to install the cameras -- really is the root of the opposition. Rather than wait another year for a study to tell the Taxicab Authority what it already know s, the agency should reconsider the issue soon and order the cab companies to install cameras, a reasonable step that could! save lives.