TLC Inspectors Cry Foul about TLC Car Seizures

The TLC seizes more than 9000 private cars annually, but apparently that's not enough. According to an article in the New York Post. "TLC chiefs are threatening inspectors with summons quotas and other stiff punishments if they don’t take enough illegal cabs off the road." The Post also says it has roll-call recordings to back up the inspector's claims.

The chiefs of the TLC inspection unit pressure their officers by issuing a target number of summonses a day.

“You are going to be doing 15 summonses a day . . . I’ll ride you for a week. If you see that you’re not getting the seizures, you see you’re not getting enforcement . . . then start with the street hails,” one chief says to an office on one of the tapes. The chiefs also threaten other subtle punishments, such as assigning an officer a day-shift just after a night shift.

TLC officers have already charged that "many seizures [are] bogus" in that the officers don’t have reasonable cause, and grab the cars done to fend off pressure from higher-ups.

Just this month, there have been allegations that the TLC seized the car of a black man who was driving his white wife, the car of a Turkish-American who was taking his neighbors to the airport, and that of a driver who gives free rides to cancer patients.

TLC inspectors are being backed by their union, the Teamsters. Randy Klein, of Teamsters Local 237, told the Post: “The ideal situation is they treat them like human beings, they are trained well, and have the tools to protect themselves and the public.”

That would be ideal, too, for the drivers whose cars are nabbed by the TLC.