The Department of Territories was getting ready to implement stricter guidelines around obtaining a taxi licence on this day in 1987, after police requested scrupulous checks on applicants.
According to ACT police, multiple known heroin addicts had been driving taxis, suggesting that Canberra's drug network was being operated by some taxi drivers.
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Police were also concerned that taxi licences had been given to a known sex offender, and a person known to be mentally unstable. The regulations at the time for those applying to drive taxis were merely to give the Registrar of Motor Vehicles a copy of their traffic records.
Criminal records were not checked when taxi licence applications were made, but licences were refused if it was known that an applicant had been guilty of an offence, and the punishment had been a jail term of more than six months.
The Registrar of Motor Vehicles, Mrs Cathy Parsons, said steps were being taken to improve the application process. A spokesman in the Department of Territories said some people with criminal records had received licences to drive taxis.
"It is not a desirable thing that people who have committed some types of offences can drive taxis," he said.
"The new procedures ... will include yearly licence renewals, will require applicants to give medical, traffic, and criminal records."
