Columnist Jeff German: Cabdrivers finally get their wish

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

The good news is that the state Taxicab Authority finally has done something.

Just what it did, however, is open to interpretation.

After eight months of inaction and kowtowing to the taxi companies while the lives of the drivers were on the line, the five-member board Tuesday unanimously approved a regulation ordering cameras in cabs by April 1.

"It is time to put this to bed," Chairman Richard Land said before taking the much-anticipated vote at the board's crowded hearing room.

But in its desire to pacify the owners and take action at long last, the board may have gone too far.

Civil libertarians are up in arms over the broad nature of the regulation, which allows companies to purchase whatever cameras they want as long as they meet minimum photographic requirements.

The original concept of installing simple digital still cameras has fallen by the wayside to high-tech video cameras with sound that have potential to intrude on the privacy of the cabbies and the riding public, including the millions of tourists who come here each year.

One of the larger companies, Whittlesea Blue Cab, went on record Tuesday saying it planned to install cameras with sound in its 350 cabs by the end of the year.

Because of privacy concerns, state law prohibits the audio recording of taxicab passengers without their permission.

Whittlesea President Brent Bell assured the Taxicab Authority Board that his company was only interested in using audio if crimes were being committed against drivers. He recommended adding language on a warning decal in cabs that would tell passengers they were being both video and audio recorded.

The board took him for his word and, after getting comforting legal advice from Deputy Attorney General Ann Elworth, it ultimately added that language to the regulation.

Elworth said both her office and the Legislative Counsel Bureau, which reviewed the regulation, have concluded that the state law would not be violated as long as the passengers were given proper notice that they were being recorded.

But those legal opinions were disputed by Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

"They've approved this with no safeguards whatsoever," Lichtenstein said. "If that's not asking for trouble, I don't know what is."

What the board did, Lichtenstein said, is tell taxicab riders to trust the companies with this awesome eavesdropping power.

"It is an exceedingly stupid idea to tell tourists we're recording everything they're saying with no guarantees of where and how it's going to be stored and used," he said. "And we don't really have any good reason for recording their conversations, but we're doing it anyway.

"Perhaps the advertising campaign 'what goes on in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas' should now add -- unless you're riding in a taxicab."