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In Denver Taxis, Extra Eyes On The Street For Police

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posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:01 PM
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In Denver Taxis, Extra Eyes On The Street For Police


www.npr.org

Some days, it would be easy to mistake the Metro Taxi dispatch center in Denver for a police station. Traffic and crime incidents are recorded in a special logbook, as drivers call in descriptions and locations to police.

It's part of a program called Taxis on Patrol. Just a day after the program began, a cab driver helped police make an arrest for a fatal hit-and-run. In the months since, eyewitness calls from cabbies using a bulletin system similar to an Amber Alert have led to hundreds of arrests.
(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.denverpost.com
www.denvercriminalde fenseattorneyblog.com



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:01 PM
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Came across this today. It looks like the TPTB are infiltrating the private sector once again, for conditioning of civilians to spy on other civilians. Sure seems to me just another form of the "If you see something say something" campaign. The biggest problem I have with it is how far certain cabbies will take their new found job titles.
Sadly, I don't see this brainwashing "spy" campaign coming to an end anytime soon.


Cabbies being trained to be first responders?

"Denver Police say they're training taxi drivers to be "first responders" and alert law enforcement of any suspicious activity they see while working their routes in the city.
Police say the four major taxi companies in the city are participating in a program that is being called "Taxis on Patrol."
KUSA-TV reports that as many as 1,200 drivers will be trained to participate. The cabs in the program will have a "Taxis on Patrol" design.
Police Cmdr. Tony Lopez says the initiative's goal is to make the city safer.
The participating taxi companies are Metro Taxi, Yellow Cab, Freedom Cab and Union Taxi.
—Information from: KUSA-TV, www.9news.com..."

"While law enforcement's intention of allowing taxi cab drivers to keep an eye on city streets and report anything suspicious might be pure, it also leaves police to rely on secondhand information provided by people with little to no criminal justice training. Arrests made based on what a taxi cab driver saw or witnessed could be rightfully called into question by criminal defense attorneys."


www.npr.org
(visit the link for the full news article)
edit on 8-3-2012 by mtnshredder because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:20 PM
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the cops have been useing taxis for at least 13 years in scotland to bust houses car pulls up nobody notices when it has not got a blue light on plain clothes cops rush out cid we call them or cops in drag old tactic . they even employ cops to drive unknown to taxi firm. payed as taxi driver & police wage plus you know where all partys are going on its the BIN MEN should be keeping a eye on & utility sales people calling mmm nice smell of weed in there most people think police are daftys about as switched on as a xbox in a amish house .think again



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:29 PM
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What a horrible idea and for the same reason that Mail Carriers as Government Informants was pretty much put down in the period immediately following 9/11.

Cops are, OF COURSE, cops..and they report on, arrest and ruin people. That is their job. The gun on their hip keeps them protected, to some degree, from those segments of the public who would do harm to people that seek to report on, arrest and ruin others. It's all logical and works well..most of the time.

What do taxi drivers or the earlier example of mail carriers have? Stupid looks and harsh language? Having them synonymous with police informant or reporting is just a horrible concept. Reporting of one's own initiative works. Heck, I personally called in 6 DUI's in my trucking career and had the opportunity to see 2 of them resolve with the police catching the guy,


Doing it by choice, in the moment and without some advance system to work with is one thing. I'd call that pure civic duty and responsibility to a peaceful and lawful society. Doing this in *ANY* form of framework designed for the purpose makes them agents of Law Enforcement. However passing that is and however removed from police work they are, it's still taking action on behalf of Police and within a system designed specifically for it.

BAD IDEA.



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:36 PM
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reply to post by geobro
 


These are not cops posing as cabbies, they're civilians posing as cops.



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:47 PM
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Originally posted by mtnshredder

It looks like the TPTB are infiltrating the private sector once again, for conditioning of civilians to spy on other civilians.

"Denver Police say they're training taxi drivers to be "first responders" and alert law enforcement of any suspicious activity they see while working their routes in the city.
The participating taxi companies are Metro Taxi, Yellow Cab, Freedom Cab and Union Taxi.
—Information from: KUSA-TV, www.9news.com..."

"While law enforcement's intention of allowing taxi cab drivers to keep an eye on city streets and report anything suspicious might be pure, it also leaves police to rely on secondhand information provided by people with little to no criminal justice training. Arrests made based on what a taxi cab driver saw or witnessed could be rightfully called into question by criminal defense attorneys."



That first line was a bit uncalled for IMO.

I don't know how Denver operates, but I was a cabbie in Phoenix Az. for many years, Yellow Taxi was one of them, and I know for a fact that if you have a criminal record you're not going to drive for an established company like Yellow. Companies like the ones you stated aren't the ones you have to worry about about. it's the "Gypsy" companies, offshoots of the major one's, that give the business a bad name.

When I drove I saw a lot of things that I told dispatch about immediatly. In some cases I cut them out of the loop and called the police directly. I wasn't conditioned or trained to do any of this. I did it because it was the right thing to do. In some cases, some of the things I reported were taking place right in my cab. This is where the cameras, and I'm sure the Denver Yellow cabs have them as well, come in VERY handy. They're situated above the rear view mirror and have two eyes. One inside and one outside the cab. They're activated by either a sudden movement from the cab, like getting hit by another car, or by tripping the switch on the bottom of it. They operate on a 5 second loop, which means they start recording things 5 seconds BEFORE the camera is activated ( Don't ask me how THAT works). There is also something you can do with the mic for the two way radio that alerts dispatch that they need to keep the camers "looping" inside the cab but you don't want to do it yourself.

The best case in point I can give you is when I picked up 2 women in downtown Mesa, with 1 child apiece, took them to 2 different locations in far north Phoenix, and then back again. Dispatch knew my route because they get that kind of inforation from passengers when they call. If there's a discrepency when they get in the cab, the driver has to tell dispatch about it. Everything is very coordinated. It was a long trip that paid very well. For the majority of the trip they treated their kids like dirt. Backhanding them from time to time, yelling at them and otherwise treating them like dogs. At one point I reached up to adjust the rearview mirror and at the same time used the top of my hand to trip the camera into operation. Then I reached down to the mic, where the passengers couldn't see, and did the morse code thing to alert dispatch that they needed to keep the camera on themselves. By the time the trip ended, I was so disgusted by the whole thing that I didn't even want their money anymore. When they got out of cab, I told dispatch, they told me to pull off right away, and in my rearview I saw the police pull right up. That quick. Smooth as silk.

With all the technology available, the cab company somehow sent the camera images that were playing in my cab that went to their offices, directly to the Mesa Police Dept. Everyone was seeing everything in that cab as it was happening. If it wasn't for things like this, those kids would probably have been abused for a long time to come.

So your assumption that what cab drivers report may be inadmissable in court is a bit unfounded. Evidence obtained in these ways CAN be and IS admissable and does help cases. I started driving in the late '80's and even back then they had undercovers driving. The notion of using cab companies to help law enforcement is nothing new. It's a finely honed craft at this point.




posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 05:59 PM
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Let's just hope that the cabbies won't beat people senseless like the Denver Police have



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 06:11 PM
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Originally posted by mtnshredder
reply to post by geobro
 


These are not cops posing as cabbies, they're civilians posing as cops.



Pfftt.....more nonsense!


It is civilians dobbing in criminals. If you saw a crime why wouldn't you report it to the police?



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 06:50 PM
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reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul
 

I feel the same as Wrabbit, that it is a civil duty to report crimes, which I've done more than once myself. I don't think that we need to be training civilians in the private sector to do what the police are hired to. What I'm most against is the mindset behind the people that are pushing these programs in the name of "it's for your own good". Most all of us would probably do the right thing and report crimes, hit and runs and the like. I just don't think it will stop there. I didn't need to be trained on what my civil duty should be as a citizen. Do we really need to be training people to report suspicious activity? I can see this program being abused, ya know "the cabbie saw it, it must be true" a disgruntled cabbie could easily use this in a detrimental way, it could also come back and bite them. I think they're putting extra risk and responsibility upon the drivers. I'm sure they didn't sign up to be cops when they took the job as a cab driver.



posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 08:06 PM
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reply to post by mtnshredder
 


Nowhere in any of those articles did I see that this was madatory for all drivers. They can either get certified or not. It's their choice.

The only difference I see between cab drivers and regular civilians is that cab drivers get around ALOT more than a regular person. At least the good ones do. This is why you see ads on the tops of Taxi's. That's why most cabs are older model police cars because both trades, cabbies and cops, put alot of mileage on those cars every day. They're made to different specifications than the car you're driving right now. Cab drivers put on 3 to 400 miles a day sometimes during the course of a 12 hour shift. This is why companies DON'T advertise on regular cars because how many miles does the average person commute every day? 10 miles?

It's all about visibility. Cab drivers are seen more by people and they also see more people. It just goes to figure then that they're going to be more apt to see more crimes. Occupational hazard.

It makes perfect sense to me. To those of you who think that ceratin drivers are going to abuse their position, of course some will. Just like some cops are going to abuse theirs.





posted on Mar, 8 2012 @ 09:44 PM
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Originally posted by Taupin Desciple
reply to post by mtnshredder
 




It makes perfect sense to me. To those of you who think that ceratin drivers are going to abuse their position, of course some will. Just like some cops are going to abuse theirs.




So do you think that is a good thing?

My main point to the OP is that Big Brother is to big as it is IMO. Programs like these seem to reinforce the ideology the TPTB are trying to sell us. I just don't care for the mentality that's behind it and how some of the sheeple in this country may interpret it. This is not the only country implementing this training program and it is a rapidly growing trend.
Who will they recruit next? Fairly good odds that cab drivers will not be the last.

So where does it stop?


.

edit on 8-3-2012 by mtnshredder because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 9 2012 @ 10:03 AM
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So do you think that is a good thing?

Programs like these seem to reinforce the ideology the TPTB are trying to sell us.

So where does it stop?


.

edit on 8-3-2012 by mtnshredder because: (no reason given)


Yes.

With all due respect, just because that's the way YOU interpret this doesn't make it the reality for everyone else. I'm basing my opinion on this because of my real life experience with it. There were weeks on end when that camera never went off and dispatch never forced or "heavily persuaded" me to be an extra pair of eyes for the police. I turned people in simply because it was the right thing to do. Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything here.

It stops when the majority of average citizens want it to stop. And it will stop when we stop participating. TPTB can't FORCE anything on us that we don't want in the first place. At least not in this case.

We both want the same thing tough. We don't want this to get to the "Minority Report" level. I'll give you that. You have your way of trying to stop it and I have mine.






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