City Begins Crackdown On Disabled Parking Placard Abuse
By aaroncynic in News on Aug 21, 2013 6:40PM
The City began an effort to crack down on people abusing disabled parking permits this week by canvassing cars with placards and placing warning notices that look like tickets on their windshields. Fox News Chicago reports workers began targeting cars with disabled placards Monday to get the word out about a new law which takes effect in January. The law states that only cars displaying a new State of Illinois placard will be exempt from parking meter fees. Cars violating the law could face a fine of up to $1,000 and vehicle impoundment.
Disability Liaison to Secretary of State Bill Bogdan told Fox “The change is obviously done to cut down on the fraud and abuse that's taking place in the program and to ensure that those people that are truly eligible for the parking program have the access that they deserve.”
CBS2 reports there are about 715,000 disability placards currently in use, which is nearly one for every ten drivers. Investigative reports by both CBS and the Sun-Times highlighted many instances of abuse, where some drivers used either a relative’s placard, stolen or fake ones to avoid paying meter fees. Some say the abuse has cost taxpayers millions in legitimate parking fees.
Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) was not a fan of the campaign, however. Fioretti told Fox the warnings are too early and said that people would forget come January. “Just make a statement, a simple one to all placard holders, defining what their rights and responsibilities are,” said the Alderman. The Secretary of State’s office said the early warning campaign was to get ahead of winter weather and it wanted to avoid sending the information out at the last minute.