Whether the motive is robbery or hate, Sikh taxi drivers at a safety forum in El Sobrante on Sunday reiterated long-standing complaints that they are frequent targets of crime in the greater Richmond area.

Officials — whom drivers and their longtime advocate, Harpreet Sandhu of the Richmond Human Relations Commission, have accused of indifference — said they are listening and ready to act, although their proposals still require approval and financing.

Richmond Councilwoman Maria Viramontes, speaking at Gurdwara Sahib Sikh temple, promised to push her council to match some $30,000 previously allocated to help equip the city's 60 or so licensed cabs with surveillance cameras, bulletproof partitions and global positioning devices. Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus and Contra Costa sheriff's Lt. Donny Gordon proposed safe drop-off points for cabs that are shared by several drivers outside a planned new Richmond police station and the sheriff's Bay Station.

John Rudolph of the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee said he will try to enlist other cities in a regional safety effort.

Sunday's forum came two weeks after Musharaf Poswal, 48, of Rodeo was shot and killed in Richmond, but Sandhu and the drivers have been vocal about safety since two earlier crimes in Richmond.

On July 2, 2003, Gurpreet Singh, 23, of Hercules was shot dead in his cab near 21st Street and Carlson Boulevard. On July 5, 2003, Inderjit Singh, 29, of El Sobrante was shot in the jaw on Roosevelt Avenue near 13th Street, where a dispatcher had sent him to pick up a fare.

Gurpreet Singh, no relation to Inderjit Singh, had money, jewelry and a laptop computer when he was found. Sandhu said he believes Gurpreet Singh was the victim of a hate crime.

Inderjit Singh's assailants never asked him for money, his brother said in 2003.

"They will shoot you if you have money and they will shoot you if you don't have money," said Harjit Bains, owner of a Richmond cab company.

Drivers at Sunday's forum said their job is risky because they carry cash and work alone at all hours and in high-crime areas. But Sikh drivers, as well as non-Sikhs who look South Asian or Middle Eastern, also get attacked because of their appearance — even more so, they said, since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The situation puts them in a particularly dangerous subcategory within an inherently dangerous profession. Nationwide, taxicab driving in 1995 had the highest rate of occupational homicide, 21 times the national average, according to a federal study that year. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said taxi drivers had a high risk of dying on the job from any cause in a 2002 report.

Bains said Richmond officials' pledges to enhance cab driver safety are offset by high fees for annual inspections and orders to fix nicks and dents unrelated to safety.

Drivers at the forum told of numerous other violent encounters, both reported and unreported. Nirmal Rangi, speaking in Punjabi with Sandhu translating, said a man approached him at the Richmond BART station three weeks ago, saying he needed to get to Vallejo and would get the money at his destination. The man gave Rangi a telephone number to call; a woman answered and promised to pay the fare.

In Vallejo, the man got out and told Rangi to leave. Rangi said when he balked, the man beat him on the head and bit him.

Rangi, who displayed a bruise over his eye and a large scab on his arm, later identified a suspect from a police photograph of parolees but said he has not heard back from authorities.

Viramontes promised to follow up with the Vallejo police chief.

She also said she would seek federal prosecution for people suspected of using a weapon in a crime against a cabby — although the power of the City Council to bring that about was unclear. Magnus and Gordon promised to be more aggressive in identifying hate crimes.

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