Task Force Crackdown on ‘Bandit’ Cabs Urged

When Santa Ana resident Salvador Ramirez was looking for a taxi, he didn’t seek out a shiny yellow car. Instead, he headed to 1st Street and Broadway, where drivers of old sedans offer rides across town or as far as Tijuana, despite the efforts of police to crack down on unlicensed cabbies.

Moments later, Ramirez was off to the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center in a rusting tomato-red Chevrolet Caprice. The fare was $2.

The bandit cab “is faster than the bus and it’s cheaper than a cab. You can’t beat it,” Ramirez said as the driver heaved his suitcases onto the curb so he could wait for a bus to San Diego.

Police say the cabs that operate without a county taxi license carry too little, if any, insurance, and they’re often at least 20 years old and in questionable condition. Licensed cabs must be inspected annually and carry at least $1 million in insurance.

Officers began citing the illegal cabs two years ago, but, according to police estimates, there remains about one “bandit” cab for every square mile in Santa Ana. Now police are proposing a countywide task force to target them.

“We’ve lessened the problem, but we have not made it go away,” Santa Ana Police Traffic Cpl. Eric Mattke said. “We want to work on this and we need to pool our resources to do it.”

The bandit cabbies are an integral part of a community where many people do not own cars, public transportation is limited and fares on licensed cabs are beyond many people’s wallets.

Many of the cabbies linger near 1st and Broadway, known as the place to get a ride to Tijuana.

Four months ago, there were as many as 20 drivers there. Now there are five or six. But residents and police say some have just moved to other streets.

Some use yellow cars that look like licensed ones. Licensed cabdrivers say they can’t compete with the low fares.

At the central bus station, taxi drivers such as Mohammad Anwar are incensed, watching unlicensed cabbies take their business.

“They are stealing $300 to $400 each day,” said Anwar, who pays $520 a week to rent his taxi from Coast Yellow Cab. “We have to work 13, 14, 15 hours a day just to make a living.”

Such unlicensed vehicles have drawn bad publicity in rural areas. In August 1999, a van carrying farm workers in Fresno County hit a big rig on a narrow road, killing the driver and 12 farm workers. That led to a sweep of rural counties by the California Highway Patrol, which issued 221 citations and pulled 36 vehicles off the road.

Eliminating cabs would prove very difficult, said Mattke, the Santa Ana police corporal. The bandit cabs are often protected by residents, who refuse to give police information about them.

“It’s an underground network, and it’s difficult to penetrate,” said Steven Elkins of the Orange County Taxi Administration Program, which licenses taxis. “We don’t get a lot of complaints.”