WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court stayed out of disputes Monday over policies in New York City and Boston that allowed police to stop taxicabs as a way to protect cab drivers.
A New York appeals court had ruled that the NYPD's special Taxi-Livery Task Force was too prone to violate passengers' privacy rights. On the other hand, a federal appeals court ruled that a different policy in Boston did not violate passengers' rights.
The Supreme Court declined to review both rulings.
Justice Department lawyers filed papers in the Boston case, saying it differed significantly from the New York case. The Boston policy was conducted with the drivers' consent and advance notice to passengers, government lawyers said. The stops in the New York case were "markedly more intrusive," the lawyers added.
The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled last December that the NYPD gave officers too much discretion to stop taxis carrying passengers when they had no reason to suspect any crime was afoot.
The task force was created in 1992 to address the high number of violent crimes against drivers of cabs serving high-crime neighborhoods. Forty-five cab drivers were murdered in New York City in 1992, and there were 3,675 robberies of cab drivers that year.
Plainclothes officers in unmarked cars stopped taxis in certain neighborhoods, questioning the drivers about their safety while watching the passengers' reactions.
Police stops of two cabs were challenged separately by a man and youth who were arrested and charged with cocaine-connected crimes. The state Court of Appeals threw out their convictions after finding the stops unlawful.
In the Boston case, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city's Taxi Inspection Program for Safety was valid because cab company owners voluntarily participated and gave their consent to the police stops.
Since 1996, owners who agree to participate are given decals to stick to each of their cabs' rear side windows. The decals, printed in English and Spanish, say: "This vehicle may be stopped and visually inspected by the Boston police at any time to ensure driver's safety."
Ronald Woodrum was a passenger in a taxi stopped by two Boston policemen in a high-crime neighborhood shortly after midnight on Jan. 22, 1998. Woodrum was arrested and charged with carrying a gun and possessing crack cocaine with intent to distribute.
After unsuccessfully challenging the admissibility of the seized gun and cocaine as evidence against him, Woodrum pleaded guilty to reduced charges but did not forfeit his right to appeal the validity of the officers' action.
The appeals court upheld his conviction, saying the TIPS stop amounted to a "rather modest intrusion on passengers' liberty."
The cases were New York v. Boswell, 99-1440, Corporation Counsel v. Muhammad F., 99-1443, and Woodrum v. U.S., 00-60.