Shop

Over the course of nine months, The Globe's investigative unit, the Spotlight Team, was able to penetrate the city's closely held and routinely ignored $1 billion taxi industry, developing sources throughout the industry to uncover a incompetently policed system rife with corruption. One team member, in a step fully disclosed to the Boston Police Department which is charged with overseeing city cabbies, received his hackney license and drove multiple shifts. He saw first-hand a world of serial indignities. The result was a stunning portrait of payoffs and rip-offs, unequal enforcement, and dangerous behavior. It led to a sweeping city-sponsored review, and a raid on the city's largest fleet owners by armed IRS agents who carted away boxes of data. A criminal investigation remains active.