Lyft Passenger Kidnaps and Rapes Driver: Police

A female Lyft driver was kidnapped, drugged and raped by a passenger, police in Georgia have said.

Demarcus Johnson, aged 32, was charged on April 5 in relation to the alleged attack in Alpharetta on March 11.

The driver told detectives she was driving for the ride-hailing app when picking up a male passenger "who stole her vehicle, kidnapped, and raped her," police said.

"During the course of the investigation, detectives learned that the victim had been given a sedative during the incident," Alpharetta Police added in a statement on April 9.

Johnson was charged with rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and theft.

Lyft said it was assisting police and had blocked the suspect's account over the "reprehensible" allegations.

"Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the behavior described is reprehensible and has no place in our community or anywhere in society," a spokesperson told Newsweek.

"We have been in contact with the driver to offer our support. Additionally, the rider's account was permanently removed from the Lyft platform, and we assisted law enforcement with their investigation."

The company's policy states: "If an allegation is credible, Lyft will take action up to and including permanently removing a user's access to ride and/or drive with Lyft."

It adds: "Because the intent of this policy is to deter conduct that is unwanted, unreasonable, and demeaning, Lyft may consider a user's conduct to be in violation of this policy even if it does not rise to the level of unlawful assault or harassment under applicable law."

Anyone who may have information is asked to contact police at 678-297-6338.

Lyft has faced scrutiny over both driver and passenger safety in recent years.

It received 1,807 reports of sexual assault in 2019, according to its latest safety report in October 2021. More than half were "non-consensual touching of a sexual body part" and 156 involved non-consensual sexual penetration, it said.

The total was up from 1,255 in 2018 and 1,096 in 2017, as the company expanded.

Uber, Lyft's larger ridesharing rival, said it received 2,826 sexual-assault reports in 2019. Of these, more than half were "non-consensual touching of a sexual body part" and 247 involved non-consensual sexual penetration.

Uber's sexual-assault reports fell to 998 in 2020, with sexual penetration claims decreasing 6 percent, according to its latest safety report in June 2022.

For each company, about one in 5 million journeys involved incidents of alleged non-consensual sexual penetration. Both firms said more than 99 percent of trips are completed without any safety report.

Newsweek has contacted Lyft's media representatives via email about when its next safety report will be published.