August 13, 2004

Mike Wallace is just
tip of TLC iceberg  

By DAN ACKMAN
 

The bizarre run-in between Mike Wallace and Taxi & Limousine Commission inspectors - which led to the arrest for disorderly conduct of an 86-year-old man armed only with a meatloaf - is unique in its particulars. But it is hardly out of character for the TLC.

TLC inspectors operate in a culture of lawlessness, which in recent years has started at the very top of the agency. They tend to be hypervigilant in enforcing TLC's rules but untrained in the law and the Constitution, not to mention manners and good sense.

While the case against Wallace is likely to be dropped - or laughed out of court - taxi drivers are rarely so lucky. When they encounter a TLC inspector, they can be ticketed for a variety of alleged misdeeds, anything from failure to fill out a trip sheet to "failure to cooperate" to unspecified "acts against the best interest of the public."

Drivers face fines or even the revocation of their licenses - the basis for their livelihoods - often solely on the word of the same kind of folks who arrested Wallace. It happens hundreds of times a year.

When a police officer makes an arrest and the case goes to trial, the officer goes before a state judge, not a judge hired by the Police Department.

Not so a TLC inspector. He goes to a TLC court and before a judge employed by the TLC. These judges are often underqualified private lawyers who work on a day-labor basis. That means they can be fired at the drop of a hat - something the NYPD, of course, could never do to a state judge.

This setup leaves TLC judges beholden to the agency. While they are supposed to consider the evidence the way any judge would, in fact, they often weight the evidence heavily in favor of TLC inspectors, as any taxi driver will tell you. It doesn't help that many cabbies are from places like Haiti and Pakistan and may not know their rights.

TLC judges who please the agency can be promoted to full-time agency lawyer status. Normally, successful lawyers become judges. But with the TLC, a legal bizarro world, it's the other way around.

With the TLC writing the rules and hiring the inspectors, prosecutors and even the judges, it's no wonder the entire regime is permeated by arrogance and abuse.

Cabbies see it every day. When it happens to Mike Wallace,  it's news.

Ackman is a lawyer who sometimes represents taxi drivers and is a senior columnist for Forbes.com.

This text is slightly altered from that which appeared in the News -- DA.