Teens arrested in cab robberies

Lynn Doan

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.

Metro Police officers on Wednesday arrested two teens believed to be involved in a series of cab robberies between June and July, the state Taxicab Authority said.

Police said they believe the boys are part of a trio that robbed five cabs in less than one month. The teens and a woman were stopped by police Wednesday on Martin Luther King Boulevard after one of the suspects was identified during the investigation of a separate incident, Taxicab Authority administrator Yvette Moore said.

Metro took the two juveniles into custody, but had not arrested the woman as of Thursday evening, Sgt. Gayland Hammack said. Until the woman is in custody, Hammack said Metro Police would not be releasing any more details of the case.

"We should have her by tomorrow," Hammack said Thursday. "We believe she was the ringleader, running these juveniles around."

Moore said the Taxicab Authority is "elated" that the crime spree appears to have been solved.

"It speaks to just how much attention is created when there is a robbery or an assault of a taxi driver," she said. "There are two police agencies fully focusing and aggressively working to solve these crimes."

However, Moore said the apprehension does not undermine her push for digital cameras in taxicabs. Moore said there have been 29 robberies so far this year, 13 of which were committed by three cases of serial robbers.

"Our overall crime rate is the concern, not an individual solved crime," Moore said. "As long as there is any robbery or assault or serious crime that involves the taxi cab indistury, we need to be looking for solutions."

In February, the Taxicab Authority board voted to study the issue of digital cameras further before voting on whether cab companies should be required to have video cameras installed in each cab.

Jason Gulbranson, assistant general manager of Ace Cab, said police might have been able to catch the suspects earlier if cameras had been installed in the cabs.

"Metro did a great job; hats off to them," Gulbranson said. "But the fact that this happened adds validity to our argument that cameras are needed."

"It might have speeded up the process, so that they would have caught them a lot quicker," he said.

Curtis Baker, general manager of Ace Cab, said he remains worried that cab drivers are still being considered "easy targets" because of the amount of money that they must regularly carry on the job.

While Baker said Ace Cab would be waiting to receive the green light from the Taxicab Authority before installing digital cameras into its cabs, Louis Casey of Desert Cab said his company would be installing test cameras shortly.

"I think cameras are something a lot of drivers have been pushing for, and we don't have a problem with that," said Casey, who is Desert Cab's operations manager. "We think down the line, (video installation) is going to happen, and we want to get the jump on it to make sure we get what's correct and the best deal for our cabs and drivers."