IF you see a car driving along otherwise quiet roads late at night, odds on it is either a police patrol or a taxi.

No other civilian job involves the same mobility around the clock than that of the cabbie. So the new partnership between York's taxi companies and the police is inspired.

Taxi drivers have always been a huge source of help to the police. In this summer's hunt for a suspect in four double murders, a cabbie came forward with important information.

Detectives investigating the death of a man in Lower Friargate, York, earlier this year were aided by 327 questionnaires voluntarily completed by cabbies.

This informal, ad hoc help is taken on to a new level by Taxinet. Cabbies have been issued with pagers with which they can pass on messages about everything from suspicious activities to traffic snarl-ups.

Taxinet is an extension of a similar scheme which has been successfully operated by York's publicans for some time. Commendably, taxi drivers have signed up to become the police's partners in the fight against crime - and congestion.

Whether cabbies will use the system to report a fare's suspicious conversation is unclear. That will depend on whether the driver considers his car to be a public arena - or as confidential as a priest's confessional.

Updated: 11:20 Friday, November 26, 2004