Two out of three city livery cabs are equipped with security cameras like the one that captured a gun-wielding robber shooting a mild-mannered driver in Queens on Saturday.
About 70 percent of the city’s 22,500 for-hire vehicles are outfitted with one of five types of camera. Each takes a quick succession of still shots that can be stitched into a video, taxi officials said.
The rest of the fleet has partitions.
After a spate of livery-driver killings in 2000, the Taxi and Limousine Commission revised its safety rules to mandate that each cab have either a camera or partition.
Partitions were in vogue early on because they were cheaper. But by 2003, drivers had begun switching to cameras.
That’s because livery drivers often own their cars, which double as family vehicles — and drivers didn’t want to be separated from children or guests during personal drives, officials said.
The cameras and partitions in livery cabs are inspected at least once every two years, the TLC said.
Footage from Saturday’s attack on cabby Trevor Bell — a 53-year-old driver with an impeccable record — in South Ozone Park has helped ID a suspect who is now being hunted, police sources said yesterday.
“We pray that Mr. Bell will make a full and speedy recovery and have every confidence that the NYPD’s intensive efforts will bring this cowardly individual to justice,” said TLC chief David Yassky.