UBER, LYFT AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: THINGS ARE WORSE THAN THEY APPEAR

Austin, Texas is in the middle of a clash concerning whether or not Uber and Lyft will submit their drivers to fingerprint background checks to reduce sexual assaults to passengers. This issue is also coming to the fore in Massachusetts. It’s being revisited in California as TNCs ferry children. And it may well become a key concern in Florida.

Despite the enthralling intellectual nature of Austin’s policy kerfuffle, bear in mind the city’s proposed fingerprinting of Uber and Lyft drivers was predicated on hard experience. Seven Austin women were allegedly sexually assaulted by Uber and Lyft drivers during 2015, according to local police.

Since Uber and Lyft began operating, the ‘Who’s Driving You?’ campaign has tallied 50 reported sexual assaults by Uber and Lyft drivers. According to expert sources, these numbers likely indicate a significantly worse reality.

To wit: The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics says only 15.8 to 35 percent of all sexual assaults are reported to the police. The National Research Council estimates 80 percent of sexual assaults go unreported to law enforcement. And Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) estimates only 32 percent of rapes are reported to police.

Our campaign tracks sexual assaults reported in the news. It stands to reason there is a greater number of assaults reported to police than appear in news stories. Significantly higher still, must be the number of actual sexual assaults involving Uber and Lyft drivers.

If you take our 51 reported sexual assaults and multiply these by any of the above estimates you’ll begin to see the rampant nature of this problem. Responsible local governments must protect passengers against this risk.

Something else: Sexual assaults are difficult to convict. RAINN estimates only two percent of rapists will spend a single day in prison. To date, none of the seven Uber and Lyft drivers alleged to have sexually assaulted Austin passengers has been convicted. This, despite the intensive public interest in these cases.

Obviously, the time to properly screen Uber and Lyft drivers is before they have a passenger in the vehicle.

And clearly, things are substantially worse than they appear.