#transit cops

"CLAIM SPOTTERS WERE ASSAULTED BY TAXI OWNERS," Hamilton Spectator. July 17, 1933. Page 7. --- Street Railway Co. Lawyers Lodge Complaint ---- Tell of Two Attacks Upon Their Agents ---- No Prosecutions Have Been Started, However ---- The police department and street railway are investigating the alleged attacks over the week-end of jitney drivers on two of the Street Railway company's spotters who are engaged in riding in the cabs and, after paying a ten-cent fare, taking the driver's names. Wilfred Davis, counsel for the Street Railway company, and Reginald Shirley. head of a firm of private detectives whose men have been working for the Street Railway company, were at the police station to inform the authorities of two different drivers attacking their agents after they had asked drivers of alleged cut-rate cabs for their names.

Although Mr. Davis refused to disclose the name of the cab drivers or the street railway agent, he stated that one of the men rode in a cab and, after getting out at Main and Gage avenue and paying a ten- cent fare, he asked the driver for his name. One clause in the taxi by- law requires all drivers to give their names to any one who hires them on demand and it was under this section of the by-law that the operative was acting.

Story Told Police The street railway counsel claimed that as soon as the driver was asked his name he leaped out of the cab and attacked the man, but later requested him to not say anything about the matter and the driver would give him a day's pay. In the meantime, Mr. Davis stated, other taxi-drivers had arrived on the scene and endeavored to enlist witnesses from people who happened to be passing, but they were refused.

The second alleged assault took place at Wentworth and Cannon streets when one of the spotters asked a man who was driving a cab for his name after paying his a fare. The driver got out of the cab and ran around the vehicle, seizing the street railway agent, "roughing him up."