WUSA9′s Russ Ptacek is getting up in cabbies’ faces again.

In December the reporter launched an investigation into claims that D.C. cab drivers are bypassing potential passengers who are black, out of fear that they won’t pay the fare. Ptacek has now put together an online form for anyone who feels they’ve been wronged by a driver.

“I’m hoping this will do what speed cams have done to speeding, and what red light cams have done at intersections,” he told FishbowlDC. “Every night, instead of just undercover WUSA9 personnel, every passenger will have their phone camera to record the truth on D.C. streets.”

Ptacek’s previous reporting… Read more

Washington has found its very own John Quinones.

Tonight, WUSA9 is airing Investigative Reporter Russ Ptacek‘s ambush-style story on cab drivers who decline to drive black customers to the Southeast area.

In a preview of the report, two WUSA9 male staffers, one black, one white, attempt to hail cabs that will drive them to Alabama Ave. in Southeast. The black subject is turned down. The driver’s reason: The last time he took someone Southeast, he was stiffed. Less than a block up the street, the white subject asks the same driver to be taken to roughly the same area. The driver agrees.

That’s when a calm and cool Ptacek enters the frame wearing a black suit, shoving a handheld mic through the passenger window to ask the driver why he didn’t pick up the black man. After some awkward back-and-forth, the driver, in a thick accent, tells Ptacek that he didn’t even notice the white guy was actually white. “You didn’t see that he was white?” Ptacek asks incredulously. (Sounds like another investigative piece: How many blind cab drivers are really working the streets?)

We asked Ptacek about ambushing cabbies… Read more