The threat of being robbed is almost a constant concern for Regency Taxi driver Sefer Gunay.

“Of course it’s dangerous,” Gunay, 31, said. “A couple of my friends have been robbed, one had his cab stolen … I’ve had three times people get out of the car and run away without paying a fare, but I don’t care about that in the bigger picture.”

From 2009 until the present, Montgomery County police have responded to 28 robberies of cab drivers, said Sgt. Chris Homrock of the department’s robbery section. Most recently, robbery detectives arrested three men last month after linking them to back-to-back robberies of Regency cab drivers in Rockville and Clarksburg on Jan. 10 and 15, Homrock said.

“We do get, I wouldn’t say a bunch of them, but they do happen with enough frequency that we notice,” Homrock said.

And detectives do take notice, recording arrests or otherwise closing the books on 15 of those 28 robberies, Homrock said. But as encouraging as those numbers are, arrests aren’t enough to deter criminals from targeting taxi drivers.

Robert Alexander, who owns and operates the county’s newest cab company, Orange Taxi, characterized the issue as one of risk versus reward for criminals.

“I hate to say this but I think it’s a fairly low-impact crime,” he said. “It’s one-on-one, and, theoretically, [criminals] believe the driver has some cash on him. There’s a minimalized risk from robbing a cab driver as opposed to, say, robbing a bank.”

Although many companies, including Orange and Regency, train drivers to handle hostile and dangerous fares, little can be done by police to prevent such robberies, Homrock said.

“When we do have a victim we try to educate them to prevent another incident [but] other than that there’s not a whole lot we can do,” he said. “... It’s a crime of opportunity; these crimes typically take about 15 seconds to complete.”

Police recommend protective measures such as security cameras and plastic or metal barriers to separate drivers from passengers.

David Mohebi, who owns Challenger Transportation and Regency Taxi, Inc., said he would like to install cameras for driver and passenger safety, but the cost is too much. The average camera costs upwards of $500, plus installation fees.

Barriers also elicit negative reactions from tourists and cab fares, said Regency General Manager Victor Delca. Delca and Mohebi would rather develop a partnership with county police as a possible alternative to those security measures.

“We have taxi drivers on the street 24 hours a day and they pick up everywhere in the county,” Delca said. “And the entire time they are watching things. ... The idea of the program is to get them the training they need to report to police if they see crimes.”

Mohebi, working through the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association — a national nonprofit taxi and chauffeur advocacy group — are drafting a program proposal to present to Montgomery County officials in the next few months.

Cab companies also hope to move from accepting cash from fares, promoting the use of credit card readers to dismiss the notion that cab drivers carry cash, Alexander said.

Driving a cab isn’t all looking over your shoulder waiting for the next stick-up; the job can be entertaining, Gunay said. He remembers in particular a young man he picked up in Bethesda on Halloween weekend.

“He lived in Kensington so it was, like, a $14 fare, but he was like, ‘I don’t have any cash on me; I’m going to run in the house to bring you some cash,’” Gunay said. “... He came out in like, 15 minutes with these two open bottles of liquor from the freezer and he was like, ‘Which one do you want?’ I said, ‘What is this, a joke? We don’t take that!’”

In his time behind the wheel, Gunay has collected many such stories and anecdotes, but, in the end, the risks and rewards don’t always even out for every driver.

“I like it, except it’s really stressful, so I don’t think I’m going to do it for too much longer,” he said. “It’s really tough; sometimes too dangerous.”

jarias@gazette.net