Effectiveness of Taxicab Security Equipment in Reducing Driver Homicide Rates

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Menéndez, Cammie K.C. ; Amandus, Harlan E. ; Damadi, Parisa ; Wu, Nan ; Konda, Srinivas ; Hendricks, Scott A.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Taxicab drivers historically have had one of the highest work-related homicide rates of any occupation. In 2010 the taxicab driver homicide rate was 7.4 per 100,000 drivers, compared to the overall rate of 0.37 per 100,000 workers.
  
  Purpose
  
  Evaluate the effectiveness of taxicab security cameras and partitions on citywide taxicab driver homicide rates.
  
  Methods
  
  Taxicab driver homicide rates were compared in 26 major cities in the U.S. licensing taxicabs with security cameras (n=8); bullet-resistant partitions (n=7); and cities where taxicabs were not equipped with either security cameras or partitions (n=11). News clippings of taxicab driver homicides and the number of licensed taxicabs by city were used to construct taxicab driver homicide rates spanning 15 years (1996–2010). Generalized estimating equations were constructed to model the Poisson-distributed homicide rates on city-specific safety equipment installation status, controlling for city homicide rate and the concurrent decline of homicide rates over time. Data were analyzed in 2012.
  
  Results
  
  Cities with cameras experienced a threefold reduction in taxicab driver homicides compared with control cities (RR=0.27; 95% CI=0.12, 0.61; p=0.002). There was no difference in homicide rates for cities with partitions compared with control cities (RR=1.15; 95% CI=0.80, 1.64; p=0.575).
  
  Conclusions
  
  Municipal ordinances and company policies mandating security cameras appear to be highly effective in reducing taxicab driver deaths due to workplace violence.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Article Automobile Driving Homicide Humans Longitudinal Studies Poisson Distribution Retrospective Studies Security Measures Video Recording Violence Workplace

  More +
• Source:
  Am J Prev Med. 45(1):1-8.
• Pubmed ID:
  23790983
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4692149
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  45
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:ebd1aba380558dc9af4a8e6941135e52c037d0b0d6557595a563321b27b16f89
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/37100/cdc_37100_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 482.59 KB ]