St. Pete Police Plan Safety Meeting With Taxi, Delivery Drivers

ST. PETERSBURG - Two days after a female taxi driver turned up dead, police are planning a meeting with area taxi drivers next week to suggest measures that may make them safer.

One recommendation may be for companies to start installing surveillance video cameras inside the cabs. At least one cab company is balking because of the exorbitant costs that would involve.

Meanwhile, detectives issued a unique plea to the public today in an effort to identify whoever killed the cab driver, Linda Faison, 39. Someone riding a bicycle found Faison's body at 7:49 a.m. Saturday on a service road outside Azalea Middle School, 7855 22nd Ave. N.

Robbery is thought to be the motive in the slaying, investigators say. It is the third time in less than a week that a taxi driver was robbed in St. Petersburg, and in one of the other two robberies, a male taxi driver was shot in the collar bone.

It is thought that Faison was slain outside her Yellow Cab before the culprit drove off in the vehicle. After the slaying, the taxi was seen being driven erratically in a neighborhood southwest of the school, as if the driver was looking for a place to dump the vehicle, St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

It was later found abandoned in a parking lot at 7010 Sunset Drive S. in South Pasadena.

Anyone who saw a Yellow Cab driven erratically between First Avenue South and Gulfport Boulevard, or between 60th Street and Sunset Drive, on Saturday between 6 and 7 a.m. is asked to contact police. Faison had picked up her last fare at 5 a.m., Proffitt said.

Anyone with information should call the homicide division at (727) 893-7164 or the communications center at (727) 893-7780. Anonymous callers can use the department's Tip Line at (727) 892-5000.

The meeting with taxi drivers and pizza deliverers is scheduled for July 24, Proffitt said.

"We just want to raise their awareness to give them some helpful tips to keep them from becoming a robbery victim," Proffitt said. "They work alone, they work at night a lot and they carry cash. All of those make them vulnerable to a robbery."

Proffitt suggested cab companies might be asked to install video cameras in their vehicles, the way convenience stores have in their stores. "We can't tell them to do that, but at some point in time a company has to make a decision about using that kind of equipment."

Gary Watson, president of Blue Star Cab, balked at the idea, saying companies already reeling from high gas prices couldn't afford such measures without outside money.

In the meantime, cab companies have made changes. At Blue Star, drivers are discouraged from picking up a fare at a residence unless the fare is seen coming out the front door. If someone is seen coming around the side of a residence, the cab driver is encouraged to drive off without letting the person inside the vehicle, Watson said.

And, he said, cab drivers are not picking up anyone on the side of the street flagging down a cab - unless it's a woman or someone with a child, or the person is known to the driver.

"If it's just a single male, late teens early 20s, with hats down over their heads, we don't pick those up," Watson said.

Watson said Blue Star also tries to get a telephone number for anyone summoning a cab, in the event it turns out to be a problematic call, but the measure isn't all that reliable because many people use disposable phones that can't be tracked to a particular person.

Watson said he thinks all cab drivers should have concealed-weapons permits if they qualify.

"If they are killing us anyway, why can't we have a shot?" Watson asked. "If one or two of them got shot, that would slow them down. Don't you think they would think twice?"

"The crime is too strong," Watson said. "Your life. You only have one."