Uber's slow response to law enforcement requests and a complex data request process leave drivers vulnerable to repeated attacks by riders using fake accounts
The MarkupDara Kerr
Context & Ripple Effects
This report extends a long arc of Uber-law-enforcement friction documented in prior coverage. In 2017, sources described a program to identify enforcement officers and stealthily block them from hailing cars (stealthily preventing officers from hailing rides). By 2019, an investigation into Uber's 80-strong Special Investigations Unit found it often put Uber's interests ahead of riders', and Uber's own safety report disclosed that only 37% of 464 US rape cases from 2017-2018 were reported to police — a gap CEO Dara Khosrowshahi defended days later.
First-order effects
Drivers attacked by riders using fake accounts cannot get timely evidence through law enforcement because Uber's data request process is complex and slow, leaving them exposed to repeat attacks by the same perpetrators.
Police investigations into ride incidents stall at the data-request stage, shifting the burden of pursuing offenders onto individual drivers.
Second-order effects
Driver trust becomes a retention problem: if the platform is seen as slow-walking police cooperation, recruiting and keeping drivers gets harder, pressuring Uber against rivals who can market faster incident-response commitments.
Regulators and city officials reviewing platform safety practices gain a concrete failure case — delayed data handoffs — to fold into licensing and audit requirements.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds across the corpus — evasion in 2017, underreporting in 2019, slow compliance in 2022 — platform cooperation with law enforcement shifts from a discretionary internal process to a mandated, deadline-bound obligation set by regulators rather than by the companies themselves.
The trend: Ride-hailing platforms' handling of criminal-incident data is moving from self-governed process toward externally enforced compliance, with driver safety as the forcing issue.
“I just feel sick over that poor man losing his life.” Brian Blagoue was carjacked at gunpoint while driving for Uber. Uber didn't give police information until three weeks later, after Elijah Newman was killed in the same spot while driving for Lyft. https://themarkup.org/...
In collaboration with @themarkup we just published an in-depth investigation into Uber's delays in responding to law enforcement requests after drivers are attacked by passengers. https://www.theverge.com/...
This latest piece by @darakerr is absolutely incredible. Not only is Uber slow to respond to law enforcement requests (literally “give out as little information as possible"), they've essentially created their “own justice system.” https://twitter.com/...
Really important reporting by @darakerr who has stayed focused on this story. Outrageous how slow Uber has been to assist law enforcement when it's drivers are carjacked or killed. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
To uphold user privacy, expert @rcalo explained that Uber *should* push back on broad requests for data. But that when it comes to information on individuals in criminal investigations, delays can put drivers in harm's way. Read the full story w/ @verge: https://themarkup.org/...
“Had they caught these people before, this guy wouldn't be a murderer and Elijah Newman would be alive.” Just weeks after riders carjacked Uber driver Brian Blagoue, a Lyft driver was killed in the exact same spot. This might have been prevented. https://themarkup.org/...
What happens when the police need Uber's help to investigate an attack on an Uber driver? Uber takes its sweet time - there are massive backlogs of request, & it's leaving drivers vulnerable to repeated attacks. A chilling investigation by @darakerr https://themarkup.org/...
This is outrageous. @uber, @lyft, and other gig companies must come to the table with workers to develop solutions that keep us safe! https://twitter.com/...
I met Brian, an Uber driver in St. Louis, last year. He saw my story about Lyft driver Elijah Newman, who was killed in an attempted carjacking. He believed he was carjacked by the same people 3 weeks earlier. I starting looking into it. Here's the result: https://themarkup.org/.…
Per @themarkup: Uber gets thousands of data requests from police when drivers are attacked or robbed. Uber complies only about half the time. Getting responses can be slow and thus, officials said, they often won't even submit such requests to Uber. https://themarkup.org/...