NEW YORK—The City Council passed legislation Wednesday that would make it illegal to knowingly use Taxi and Limousine Commission licensed vehicles to facilitate sex trafficking.
If a driver or vehicle owner knowingly lets a vehicle be used to transport a sex worker, they would face a $10,000 fine.
Taxi drivers are concerned they will have to start discerning who is and isn’t a prostitute, opening the door for discrimination charges. About a dozen taxi drivers and several women gathered on City Hall’s steps Thursday to protest the bill.
Fernando Mateo, president of New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, motioned to the women gathered and said, “I would challenge anyone of you to tell me which one of them you would consider to be a prostitute. Cab drivers are hired for one reason and one reason only, and that is to transport people from point A to point B in a safe manner. We are not detectives. We are not private investigators.”
