Quantitative Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Safety Equipment in Taxicabs in 26 Major U.S. Cities: An Ecological Analysis

Background: In the United States, taxicab drivers still experience disturbingly high homicide rates. Studies focused on this high-risk population are uncommon due to the difficulty in accessing data. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of security cameras and partitions installed in taxicabs. Methods: Newspaper reports of taxicab driver homicides from 1996 through 2010 were located through Lexis Nexis. Agencies regulating transportation with jurisdiction over the cities provided safety equipment use and number of licensed taxicabs. A pre-post retrospective time series study design was employed. Poisson regression was used to model the effect of safety equipment on city-level taxicab driver homicide rates. Results: After controlling for decreasing taxicab driver homicide rates and background city homicide rates, preliminary results suggest in the 8 cities with security cameras installed in taxicabs the taxicab driver homicide rate was five-fold less (p=0.002) than the 11 cities where taxicabs are installed with neither cameras nor partitions. Camera cities also experienced a three-fold reduction (p=0.012) in taxicab driver homicides compared with the 7 cities with taxicab partitions. There was no significant difference in taxicab driver homicide rates in partitions cities compared with the 11 comparison cities (RR=1.05, p=0.58). Conclusions: The data suggest security cameras confer a protective factor against taxicab driver homicides at a city level. Although preliminary, these findings suggest city regulators and industry safety professionals might consider the use of safety cameras as a major prevention measure.