(1st Place award-winning enterprise news series at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, 1st Place award-winning investigative series at the California College Media Awards)
Disabled Placard Abuse at Los Angeles City College
(a three part series)
Article 1: DMV Cracks Down on Disabled Placard Abuse
Hanging from the rear-view mirrors of many of the cars parked around
Los Angeles City College is a blue or red disabled placard. On any
given day, out of the 55 spaces that line the campus, there are up to 27
to 35 spaces taken by vehicles whose owners are registered disabled
drivers. The Department of Motor Vehicles confirms that at least two of
them were fraudulent.
The Collegian began investigating the high amount of disabled
placards with the DMV earlier this year after Professor Robert Vangor, a
math instructor in the Learning Skills Department, noticed that the
number of placards being used in the metered parking was excessive. He
counted 27 cars parked on Heliotrope Drive, all with blue or red
placards. To Professor Vagnor, the number of placards didn’t seem right.
Walking down the streets that line City College, there are plenty of
places to park your car. If you are lucky, you may get one of the few
spaces across the street that do not have a parking meter. The parking
meters on Willow Brook Avenue and Heliotrope Drive cost 25 cents per 15
minute intervals or $4 for six hours.
According to DMV records, there are over 24 million drivers in
California and approximately 2.1 million of them will receive a
disabled placard this year alone.An estimated 621,000 people in Los
Angeles have a disabled parking placard; an extremely easy feat to
accomplish.
An Application for Disabled Person Placard is available online,
after completion, all that is needed is a doctor signature and to pay
the $6 fee. The placard arrives in three weeks.
These placards are meant to ease mobility for disabled persons, but
many students are finding ways to use them to circumvent the tedious
lack of free student parking around campus. Many students complain about
getting tickets and see it happen as they dash from class to their
cars. They end up searching for other ways to get around receiving one,
like using the disabled placards illegally.
This is part of a larger problem running rampant through City
College campus which is currently under investigation by the Department
of Transportation [DOT]. According to Cadet Flores, LACC Sheriff Dept.,
DOT has set up several sting operations to end disabled parking placard
abuse in the surrounding area of the campus. “They can be hard to spot,
you don’t know if someone is disabled by looking at them, we have to run
their plates and go by the registered driver description, if it doesn’t
match, they pursue the problem.” said Cadet Flores.These sting
operations have been happening since the middle of last semester and
will continue randomly through the next few years until a possible
legislation change can enforce placard abuse.
This is an easy way to find perpetrators using probable cause.
The system still needs some fine-tuning. Students who decide to try and
defraud this system could be in for a not-so-pleasant surprise. The DMV
threatens to cancel and revoke cards for misuse, they give a heavy fine
of $250 to $3,500 for allowing misuse of placards or you could be jailed
for six months.
The “crackdown” promised by the D.M.V. in 2011, seems to be
going slowly. According to the D.M.V. website, One out of 10 drivers in
California are legally registered as a disabled driver, making this
problem common among people of all ages.
It may be easy for a student to drive their parents car, and even
easier for them to put up the disabled parking pass, even though it
doesn’t belong to them. One of these students using placards illegally
said, “I put up the thing [placard] up and that’s because of the lame
job the school does with providing parking for students. I don’t want to
pay forty dollars a week to park and go to class, I know it is wrong
but so are the prices the school gives for a parking permit. I’m just
not going to pay.”
Maria Gonzalez, student at City Colleges said, “It isn’t fair
to the rest of us who are willing to play by the rules, it shows that
people really don’t care about the people who actually need the spaces.”
City Councilman, Dennis P. Zine has put forth a motion to try and
make legislative changes in Los Angeles. The motion states, “Disabled
parking placards are issued and regulated by the State of California and
legislation would be necessary to address the rampant abuse that has
been observed. Legislative changes could include actions that have been
taken in other jurisdictions. The City could consider designating
specific on-street parking spaces for those with disabled parking
placards. The State could be asked to place the driver’s photo or other
identifying information on new placards issued, and require periodic
medical review to justify continued use of the disabled placard.”
Los Angeles City College isn’t the only area affected by placard
abuse; it is also reported heavily downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills
and several other areas of the city with crackdown a priority and sting
operations—all across the city.
If you spot a disabled parking placard in any of the spaces around
the campus, and think it is a case of abuse, you can report it to the
D.M.V. by writing down the number of the placard and license plate and
filling out the form at:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/inv/inv172a.pdf.
Article 2: Placard Abuse Draws More DOT Stings
It’s a rainy Thursday afternoon, as Collegian reporters follow
undercover DOT agents, looking to bust illegal disabled parking abusers
around City College.
The Collegian has been following the investigation of disabled
placard abuse around the surrounding streets of L.A. City College
campus. There have been few developments and some major enforcement
provided to solve the situation. The Department of Transportation (DOT)
has continued to set up sting operations near City College on
unannounced days throughout the next few months.
Bruce Gilman, DOT Public Information Officer said, “The sting
operations are random, and done by complaint level. It’s all based on
availability of resources. Any complaint we receive, and we will go to
investigate.”
On Nov. 28, DOT set up a sting operation on Heliotrope Ave.
and Willow Brook Ave. “To find the individual, they have to get out of
their car. The [starting] price is $363 dollars for misuse of disabled
persons parking placards.,” said Sergeant. Kimmi Porter.
Twenty-three placards were counted around the metered parking.
This number is only slightly down from 27 placards earlier this
semester. After reviewing the disabled placards and license numbers, 17
of them are possible repeat disabled parking offenders, who continue to
use a disabled parking placard. DOT continues to investigate on the
streets around City College.
After contacting the Department of Motor Vehicles to find out what
is being done to correct the problem, it was discovered that the DMV
have stopped pursuing the problem near City College. They primarily
investigate when local authorities and citizens request assistance. They
make exceptions in specific cases, such as when the Collegian provided
disabled placard numbers and corresponding license plates for the sting
operations earlier this semester.
At 12:23 p.m. DOT made their way around the surrounding streets of City College campus.
Pamela Crenshaw, an addiction counselor and legally disabled
driver parked her car. She put up her disabled parking placard and
walked towards the campus.
She says, “I have a brace on my leg, I have spinal arthritis. I’m
not even supposed to be carrying this [indicates to handbag] a lot of
people who don’t look like they’re handicapped are. It’s hard to tell,
and that’s why we are asked to carry our receipts around and our
doctor’s note, but yeah, there are a lot of people who take advantage.”
According to an email from Jessica Gonzalez of DMV Media Relations,
“Individuals must keep their DMV application receipt in their vehicle
with their name on it, as well as the placard. This verifies who is
either operating or riding in the vehicle is in fact, the same person
using the placard. This is an enforcement issue at the local level, and
placard abuse is more appropriately handled by local police and parking
enforcement authorities. They’re in the best position to actually
witness the offense and are the citing authority.“ In short, the DMV is
involved in issuing placards, not enforcing them.
The DMV asked Collegian reporters to place all questions to other
enforcement agencies that are better equipped to solve the situation.
Agencies like, the Department of Transportation, the Los Angeles Police
Department, and the City Council of Los Angeles are said to have more
effective methods to stop disabled placard abuse.
The Collegian contacted LAPD on the issue, and even though LAPD
has the most effective ways to deal with the problem, they would not
take the time to comment or give any insight on how they plan to solve
the problem.
In order for enforcement, a citation needs to be written. There
also needs to be “on-site evidence” of an infraction witnessed by a law
enforcement or parking enforcement officer.
Cadet Flores of the LACC Sheriff Department researched how easy
it is to get a disabled placard through illegal means. He explained,
“People don’t even need to go to the DMV to renew their placards, it
happens automatically. It is also evident that some are stolen from
deceased disabled drivers cars or mailboxes.”
This creates an opportunity that further perpetuates the
problem. If a disabled driver doesn’t change their address, a placard is
sent to their previous address and lands in the hands of someone who is
not disabled. It is up to the person receiving the placard to decide
whether or not to return it to the DMV.
City Councilman Dennis Zines, former LAPD officer, is still
working on legislative changes. Chief Legislative Deputy, Brian Perry
said, “State administered programs such as these would have to go
through state legislation. This takes a lot of time, because the state
must provide the mechanisms for it. We need to make it convenient for
law officers and authorities to identify the abuse easier. We could
designate parking meters for disabled, although that would be protested
widely by people who are actually disabled. They wouldn’t be able to
access the buildings as quickly as they need to. This is a hard
legislative change, because we have to be sympathetic to both sides.
Another option is to require a photo of the disabled driver to be
affixed to the placard.” Perry expressed how important this issue is to
Councilman Zines, saying, “It is a problem affecting many people and
causing widespread parking problems across Los Angeles.” The City
Council will determine whether to hear the proposed legislative changes
in the next couple months.
Chief Legislative Deputy Perry was included in some of the sting
operations performed in Downtown, Los Angeles. He explains, “I was on a
sting operation with DOT and we were picking off people left and right.
People would park and throw up the placard, our DOT officer would
immediately verify whether or not the driver was the registered user of
the placard, several were not, and received citations.”
The parking problems are affecting several other community colleges, including ELAC, Pierce and Glendale Colleges.
Professor Tory Topjian from Glendale College said, “I have a
placard because of my walking disability, but most of the time I don’t
use it, and try to walk the extra distance. I only use it when I
absolutely have to. It [disabled placard abuse] is rampant at Glendale
[College] where I teach too. A lot of times, I have to go to the parking
structure on top of the hill to park and it’s a sad thing. The parking
spots for placards is right in front of the Glendale College Police
station and they still don’t do anything about it.”
A recent study by Fehrs and Peers Transportation Consultants
states, “Vehicles with disabled placards occupied more than a quarter of
all meters surveyed (which, as a side note, suggests the existence of
fraud alone, since only 20 percent of Los Angeles County reports a
disability.) They also consumed the most unpaid time: whereas the
average vehicle parked for roughly half an hour, the average disabled
placard vehicle parked for 3 hours and 49 minutes.”
If you witness disabled placard abuse, contact campus police by dialing #3 from any phone on campus.
ARTICLE 3: Placard Abuse Rates Drop At City In The Wake Of DOT Stings
After months of intense investigation and sting operations, the
Department of Transportation has successfully reduced the amount of
misused disabled parking placards in the metered parking around City
College, but what can help curb the problem completely?
For the past few years, some students have been using the metered
parking as their own personal reserved parking, free of tickets and
free of charge, but DOT has gone to great lengths to cut down on the
problem. DOT has continued random sting operations as recently as
Monday, April 8.
Cadet Flores said, “They [DOT] called to let us know they were here
last Monday for a sting. They are definitely helping with the problem.”
Using data collected over the past year, the amount of disabled
placards has decreased from 45 to around 12 daily. This opens up more of
the 55 spaces around City College for legally parked vehicles and truly
disabled drivers. While this is a step in the right direction,
legislative changes and a new system are needed to curb the misuse
completely.
Donald Shoup is the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA.
Shoup is considered the authority on all parking issues and offers
several ideas to city planners to help stop many types of parking
problems.
Shoups’ article, “Ending the Abuse of Disabled Placards,” explains the
problem and how it affects city revenue. He writes, “A research team
from UCLA observed a block with 14 parking meters for a full day, and
most of the curb spaces were occupied most of the time by cars with
disabled placards. For five hours of the day, cars with placards
occupied all 14 spaces. The meter rate was $4 an hour, but the meters
earned an average of only 32 cents an hour. Cars parked free with
placards consumed $477 worth of meter time during the day, or 81 percent
of the potential meter revenue on this block.” That data only applies
to one block in Los Angeles.
Shoup also looked at ways that placard abuse was solved in other
states. In Virginia, cities like Arlington and Alexandria attached “All
May Park, All Must Pay” signs to many of their parking meters and also
added specific meters for disabled drivers in easily accessible spaces.
There are no price cuts at all. This removes the problem entirely and
creates an evenhanded policy that generates far more revenue for the
cities.
Using Professor Shoups’ data, the answer to the problem in Los
Angeles is to have no more placards. The DMV could end the disabled
placard system and the city could start a system in which the revenue
generated by metered parking can aid disabled drivers. Shoup mentions
that, “spending the full subsidy to provide paratransit services or taxi
vouchers for everyone with disabilities seems much fairer than wasting
90 percent of it to provide free parking for able-bodied placard
abusers.”
Some states have figured out other systems to help prevent placard
abuse. Michigan adopted a two-tier system in which drivers with severe
disabilities are allowed to park free at the meters, but if your
condition is temporary or not debilitating you must pay at the meters.
Census details from Michigan show the DMV had issued 500,000 disabled
placards before the new system was in place, allowing all disabled
drivers to park for free. After the new system was introduced only
10,000 drivers applied for the placards allowing free parking at meters.
According to the DMV, up to 40 percent of disabled placards are
fraudulent in any area under investigation in Los Angeles. DOT will
continue to enforce the metered parking around City College and random
sting operations will be set up for an undetermined amount of time—until
a new system or legislative changes take place.
The old zoo in Griffith Park was opened in 1912, to a barrage of many complaints about the cages being too small for animals. The site is merely ruins at this point, with partial cage walls falling over tall grass, and huge dark staircases and tunnels leading to several more small cages.
