Police are urging taxidrivers to seek immediate assistance if they become suspicious of passengers as investigations continue into a series of assaults and robberies targeting drivers, while the Fiji Taxi Association says the attacks have strengthened its push for permanent fare increases and better safety measures.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Operations Kasiano Vusonilawe said officers were doing all they could within existing resources to investigate the incidents and maintain patrols.
“The Fiji police are doing their best in line with the capabilities we have as per investigations and patrols that’s ongoing but we urge the taxidrivers not to be careless and always take precautionary measures that if they are suspicious of their passengers, they can drive first to any police station or community post for the officers on duty to identify their passengers before they continue their journey,” he said.
“For the CCTV issue, we do not have any budget to facilitate all CCTV cameras in every corner of a central business district.”
“In addition, from the month of June alone, we experienced increase in burglary cases compared with the previous months.” Fiji Taxi Association president Mohammed Faiyaz said the recent attacks highlighted the urgent need to improve driver safety.
“The issue is the driver’s safety, we want to put cameras and GPS in the taxi for the safety of the drivers,” he said.
“The drivers don’t deserve to get robbed or assaulted by passengers.”
Mr Faiyaz said the association would seek to make the current temporary taxi fare increase permanent.
“We’ll try to retain this fare, instead of temporary to get the fare fixed.”
Mr Faiyaz called for increased police patrols while urging drivers to remain vigilant when picking up passengers.
