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Cab companies call for action

Request quicker police response to violent attacks against drivers

By: Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 08/18/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Duffy’s Taxi general manager Phil Walding would like to see better police response times for cabbies in trouble.

Managers of Winnipeg's largest taxi companies are calling for quicker police response to violent attacks against drivers.

Duffy's Taxi general manager Phil Walding and other industry officials met with Mayor Sam Katz Tuesday, as police searched for two female passengers who attempted to rob a 28-year-old cab driver earlier in the day near McGee Street and Ellice Avenue.

Taxi driver charged

POLICE have charged a taxi driver with sexual assault after an alleged attack last fall.

Gurmail Singh Plaha is charged with the single count after a woman claimed the driver kissed her and squeezed her breast in November 2009. The man had his licence reinstated recently by the Manitoba Taxicab Board, after it was suspended in May.

The board said if the Crown pressed charges, then the licence would be reviewed again.

Police said one woman seated in the cab's front seat at about 6:30 a.m. pulled out a knife and told the driver she wanted cash, before the women took off.

The incident was the latest in a string of robberies, stabbings and beatings that Walding said are becoming increasingly common for Winnipeg taxi drivers this year.

He'd like to see police respond in less than 30 minutes if a taxi driver is in trouble.

"We just don't think that (police) take issues with taxis very seriously," Walding said.

"We do know that some of our drivers get kind of crazy and excitable and that, but if they're being attacked, they should get reasonable attention and we just don't feel that's happening."

Duffy's has about 160 standard cabs on Winnipeg streets.

Last month, one of Walding's drivers had his head stitched up after a stabbing. The man has since recovered.

"The scary thing was that cut was about no more than an inch from his eye. A little bit this way or that way, and they could have blinded him," Walding said.

He said the discussions with the mayor included the need for taxi dispatchers to get better training on working with 911 operators, something already discussed earlier this year.

"Unfortunately, there again, that's something that we're still waiting for."

Gord Barton, a former Winnipeg Police Service officer who is now Unicity Taxi's general manager, was also at the meeting with the mayor and said he's "worried" about response times after hearing complaints from some of Unicity's drivers. The company has about 220 standard cabs.

"We'd like to be able to see the police act faster," Barton said. "Many occasions, they're just not quick enough, but you have to understand too, those guys have got their own work to do."

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said police manage their resources as effectively as possible when it comes to answering calls. He said calls are assigned a priority based on public safety.

"Whether it's a cab driver or Joe Citizen, it doesn't make a difference," he said. "Both situations would be treated equally and we would prioritize them in the same fashion."

A spokesman for the mayor said he met with members of the taxicab industry over a "variety of issues," but declined to comment further.

The Manitoba Taxicab Board announced last week that all cab drivers will have to get full shields separating the front and back seats or L-shaped shields that extend to the dashboard.

Police are looking for two aboriginal suspects about 18 to 20 years old for Tuesday's cab attack. They may also have been involved in another incident at about 6:45 a.m. near Maryland Street and St. Matthew's Avenue. In that incidenty, two women tussled with a 54-year-old woman and threatened her with a knife before fleeing empty-handed.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 18, 2010 A5

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