A federal appeals court has ruled that New York City can track taxi drivers by using their installed GPS system and this tracking device does not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of unreasonable search and seizure.
In a 2-1 decision, the Second Circuit held that taxi drivers do not have a protected privacy interest in the vehicles they drive and that taxicabs are “not truly private vehicles.”
New York taxicabs were fitted for GPS back in 2004 and this collected data would later be used to keep track on whether taxi drivers were overcharging passengers for a higher suburban rate while they were still driving within city limits.
Cab Driver Hassan El-Nahal was among the drivers who were accused of overcharging passengers in 2010 and he sued the city and the Taxi & Limousine Commission in 2013 stating it violated his Fourth Amendment protection.
In 2010, the GPS devices showed that 13,315 of 21,819 drivers had overcharged customers.
El-Nahal had been a driver for over 20 years when the Taxi & Limousine Commission said he had overcharged passengers ten times over a three-month period between 2009 and 2010.
He then filed suit, stating that his constitutional rights were violated with the tracking devices in privately owned taxi cabs. The Second Court of Appeals ruling found that as he had no ownership interest in the cab, he could not argue that the government had intruded in his property since the GPS was already installed at the time he used the vehicle.
The Taxi & Limousine Commission was very pleased with the ruling.
Daniel Ackman, a lawyer for the driver, said he was disappointed by the ruling and is considering an appeal.
Ackman commented, “The decision establishes a potentially dangerous precedent – it could allow the government to require car manufacturers to install GPS devices in all cars to track individual drivers. They’d have no Fourth Amendment claim because they did not own the car when the device was installed.”
By Samantha
YellowCabNYCTaxi.com Staff Writer
Stacy, calm down. All taxi rides are traced and monitored. Find TLC website. There is a phone number – call it. It’s a governmental body – they will investigate this far more than uber or any other private corporation ever would. If driver took your phone – you will get it back. Have a good day and relax.
Uber has been caught red-handed fabricating fake news stories that glorified Uber. This company knows no lows or bounds. Morality and honesty were thrown out the window with Uber.
Why are there so many individual forclosures every month? Are these owners who bought hi at the auction and walking away or the banks want the medallions back although I can’t see why they would want em. The TLC got the medallion down fast. It shouldn’t take long to get them all the way to zero. Well any answers to my forclosure question?
the 12 hours shifting policy goes into effect by November 1 ..individuals medallion owner will not be able to cross the river ..
the density of street hailing within the city is receding so fast ,owners must run free miles as far as 10 miles to pickup one passenger.
yellow taxis only operate in midtown compared to uber serving every corner nationly and globally.Serge pricing has opened a new ara on how to dig into people packets. just one year serge pricing could pay off those paper medallions .the problem ,comes with big price against immigrants who took taxi job as an open gate to college housing and integrity with American economy..from now up ,that dream is declining rapidly.the new technology will threat drivers as housekeepers limiting there income to serve under predictions and interest and be subject to rules executed by computers.. will uber dominate ..??now everyone one can establish his ehaill up and every base will do so and have right to such apps ..in the next 2 years we will see each borough with its own app ..and driver will collect credit cards transactions straight to his her account..when airline came to life people thought no one would own and air plane …Microsoft crushed to death by apple when iphone was born . technology gets old very fast and dies in people minds quickly ..more tech is coming….Imagine a solar wind wipes out all satellites in the outer orbits .or gravity goes crazy ..we are in time where our life is subjected to big failures and backups won’t work.
Foreclosures are up because people paid 800-900k for medallion and now it’s worth 250k. The price will never recover. On top of the medallion payments, car payment , insurance and repairs they bought houses and have mortgages so people are bailing out . I know two people personally who sold their houses to get the cash out so they could walk away from the medallion because they could never work enough hours to make the payments. It was only a couple of years ago that the airports were stripped every night and you could do $50-60 an hour no problem, now we slowly starve to death and we are not at the bottom yet. Medallions are advertised 600-700k this is fantasy BS. The market for medallions is frozen, no sales, just forclousures , brokers, fleet owners and tlc want the price to artificially stay high this is only making things worse, medallions will sell when free market prices become available not these fictitious high prices. Anybody who bought in the last 12-13 years has lost all equity gain. Prices are should be back to 2001 level (200-250k) no more. If you want to pay more you are a fool, be patient the price is going lower
Uber is everywhere in NYC, so the ads!
I see Arro didn’t make the list.
Woman asked me how much to Staten Island. Meter +tolls I replied. Oh, I have a 20% uber discount. They told me $50 incl tolls and tip. I said I can’t do it for $50. Uber got the job.
Peter, It’s the wild west and TLC dont care why should we. You own the medallion it’s time to make flat fee for the trip to match uber fares. Better to take a loss then nothing at all.
I would have Family but $39 to Staten Island is too low
If it was a slow day I would have taken them.
Any suggestions on how to contact a driver? I have name and number. Was very drunk last night, and I don’t think I paid him/her. 🙁
Anyone wishing to contact driver or T L C, or lost his/her iPhone, or anything else, or just liked the driver and wants to contact him/her, or wants to communicate to T L C employees (hundreds of them) – please open any web browser search window, type T L C New York – click on TaxiLimousine-Commission website.
call 311 and mention Taxi information.