For immediate release: September 22, 2010

59 Arrests & the New Undercovers of NYC...Whose Rights Thrown Out Next?

Statement by Bhairavi Desai, NYTWA Executive Director

“There are three things with which we take issue with the District Attorney’s announcement today of arrests of 59 drivers for fare overcharging:  the issue of evidence, the timing and the method for arrests.

If there are 300 incidents, then there should be 300 witnesses.  How can data from GPS alone be used to take away a person's freedom and deem them a felon, let alone their livelihood?   A New York Court of Apeals decision People v. Weaver, bars prosecution based on GPS alone.  Surely drivers have the same defense rights as other New Yorkers.

Just yesterday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument in our case (Nnebe et al v. Daus et al) challenging the TLC’s policy of automatically suspending drivers upon their arrest.  That being the case, the timing of these arrests—and the press attention they will certainly generate—is suspicious.  These charges have been around for over four months.  Of course, the number of violators and the definition of the worst of the worst have been ever-changing.  What changed—why are these drivers being arrested today?  Are they trying to prejudice the federal court?  I hope not. But the timing raises the question.

The most disturbing and perhaps the issue with most implication here is the cheap method the DA used to arrest drivers.  Drivers who have been cooperating in administrative court proceedings with the TLC - either surrendering their license or opting to pay a high fine or requesting a hearing with the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings – were sent a letter directing them to appear at the TLC.  What appeared to be a routine settlement conference was basically a fishing expedition by the District Attorney to catch his prey.  Has the DA’s office ever asked an agency to set up a series of meetings with bankers only to have police show up? Is this the new form of “sting” operations in New York City?  Regulators and bureaucrats as the new class of undercovers?  Turning the offices of our industry regulator into a trap leaves drivers feeling powerless to make complaints about injustices committed against drivers daily – from lease overcharges by taxi garages and brokers to assaults and fare beatings.  Where do we turn to when allegations without evidence are made against a few are used to essentially smear and leave powerless the whole?”

Click here for PDF of press release.