NYPD has at least five undercover ‘Cop Cabs’ | Hacker News Reader

NYPD has at least five undercover ‘Cop Cabs’

muckrock.com

18 pointsmorisy9 comments

I live in a small resort town where the population in the off season is less than 1000 and during the peak season on major holiday weekends can swell close in the hundreds of thousands. A few years ago the local police department did this. They didn't use it for enforcing traffic laws or surveillance. Instead they operated as a normal cab, picking up fares, and would eavesdrop on people's conversations in the cab and use the intel they gathered to make arrests. In terms of arrests it did lead to some major drug arrests, but I think the entire program was marred in controversy that they stopped.

Mind sharing what town that is?

Ocean City, Maryland

Here is one of the stories about the program: http://oceancitymd.gov/oc/ocean-city-police-undercover-offic...

I desperately want someone to parody the montage sequence from The Departed showing Matt Damon double-agenting his way through police academy and Leonardo DiCaprio double-agenting his way through mafia initiation, except this time showing a cop double-agenting as a cab driver ... talking about stuff passengers don't want to hear, receiving calls constantly on a hands-free device, intentionally taking the long way if the customer looks like a tourist... with some sick Dropkick Murphys in the background.

I'll remember the next time I take a cab in Ocean City to discuss with the cab driver how much everyone hates cops.

It's sad that a lot of these programs are created explicitly to curtail illegal drug trade. Following Portugal's model of legalization would make this kind of invasive policing almost irrelevant.

I saw one in NYC back in 2011 get a guy for what I think ended up being a stolen car. The cab started to go, then suddenly reversed and went around a median, coming head to head with a car. They then put guns to the driver and ordered him out. Only pic I could find of it: http://imgur.com/ObrYLBv

and in this case there were 2 plainclothes officers in the cab and the light wasn't on so I don't think they take fares.

FWIW Law and Order also had a scene with an undercover cab back in the Orbach days, so previous to 2005. This has been around for a while.

They definitely exist, I've seen two. Once buzzing someone to pull over, and another at a stoplight, they have visible grille lights.

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