Yellow alert: Your cabby could be a criminal!
The Taxi and Limousine Commission has spent most of the last two years blind to potential offenders carting around millions of riders in yellow cabs, livery cars and limousines, The Post has learned.
In an epic snafu, the data on more than 45,000 licensed TLC drivers was accidentally scrubbed from a state database that sends an alert when a driver is arrested — meaning officials won’t know to suspend a driver while his case winds its way through the court system.
The dangerous loophole has been open since September 2008, when the TLC was supposed to submit a list of names of drivers who were no longer licensed by the agency to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
The bumbling employee tasked with compiling the names of the ex-licensees entered incorrect search terms, coming up with 90,000 names thought to be ex-licensees.
In fact, the records of 45,741 active drivers, some still on the road today, were also submitted and deleted.
The TLC didn’t realize they made the foolish move until a year later, setting off a mad scramble to reassemble the records.
The fix is nowhere near completion, and officials wouldn’t say how far along they are in restoring the list.
It’s also possible that the 45,000 drivers will have to be re-fingerprinted.
Riders across the city said they were nervous about the ramifications.
“He could take you anywhere. He could harm you,” said Rachel Davies of Manhattan. “You could become their prisoner and you rely on them to take you where you want to go.”
TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said that the bungled process won’t affect drivers with “serious safety-related violations,” since the commission is notified of those independently.
Additional reporting by Colin Mixson