Livery Driver, Robbed By Machete-Wielding Suspects, Upset With Cops Over Investigation
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One small consolation to a livery cab driver, who was kidnapped and robbed last month in Brooklyn by two machete-wielding suspects, was that his TaxiCam had taken pictures of the duo.
However, when Angel Gonzalez, a 30-year veteran livery driver, went to the police, he claims detectives did not know how or where to download the pictures from the device.
1010 WINS' John Montone with Fernando Mateo
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Fernando Mateo, of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said it was days before detectives were able to retrieve the images. He calls it unacceptable.
"If they get robbed at 10 o'clock at night, and they're at a police precinct at 10:30 or 11 o'clock we want to know why it is that that precinct can't print out the images of the people that committed the crime," Mateo told 1010 WINS.
He is calling on the NYPD to implement the Taxi Drivers Warning Alert System which would provide precincts -- at no cost to the department -- with the necessary technology to download images of suspects immediately after a crime has been committed.
"I don't want to take credit away from NYPD, they do make arrests, but it takes them weeks to do that, when they can do it in days," Mateo said. "Why is it that they're not able to say, 'Okay, let's print it and get it out there immediately?'"
Mateo said Gonzalez spent hundreds of dollars to install a TaxiCam in his cab to assist police in case he was ever a victim of a crime.
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