Oceanside Disabled to Police Their Parking Spots

Disabled residents of Oceanside will soon have a chance to do more than complain when someone illegally hogs a parking place set aside for the handicapped.

The City Council unanimously approved a new program Wednesday that will use unpaid citizen volunteers to enforce handicapped parking laws, including writing tickets.

Police Sgt. Doug Timbs, in charge of the city’s traffic unit, said he hopes to gather the volunteers from among the ranks of the city’s disabled.

“I want to give handicapped people the first chance at it,” he said. “These are the people in our community most directly affected by it.”

Timbs said he has already been contacted by about 20 people, though only two will be chosen initially.

The first volunteer parking officers will probably hit the streets in a month because they must go through an extensive training program and be equipped with uniforms, radios and vehicles. They will not be armed.

Timbs said that first they will survey local business and shopping center lots. Businesses with handicapped spaces that are improperly or poorly marked or that otherwise fail to meet the law will be contacted by the city.

After that, volunteers will begin citing drivers who are illegally using the spaces, Timbs said.

Oceanside is one of a growing number of cash-strapped cities relying on unpaid volunteers.

Officer Bob George said the Police Department began seeking volunteers in 1983. About 30 work regularly in every division of the department. Last year they worked more than 9,000 hours, the equivalent of more than three full-time employees.

A number of San Diego County cities have volunteer programs. Escondido and Chula Vista also use volunteers to enforce handicapped parking laws.

“It’s been great,” Escondido Police Lt. John Wilson said. “You park in a handicapped parking place in Escondido . . . and you have a ticket. They’ll nail you in Escondido.”

Wilson said Escondido has had no problems with its program, established in 1984. But a couple of volunteers have been threatened by irate violators and “we’ve had one or two (volunteers) punched out.”

“The benefit to us,” he said, “is while the volunteers take a handicapped parking call, our guys are out looking for burglars and dope dealers.”

In Oceanside, the head of the city’s Committee for People with Disabilities said volunteers are needed to enforce laws meant to protect the disabled.

“Police officers can’t be everywhere, they can’t know everything,” said the Rev. Clyde Shideler, who is blind. “This way there is somebody there who is directly concerned and directly involved . . . (with) the added weight of a nice blue uniform to make sure things are done properly.”

Some people violate the handicapped parking laws unintentionally, said Shideler, or because the spaces are improperly marked.

“Others are the hard-core people who have very little sensitivity and very little concern for anybody but themselves,” he said.

And yes, those people are apt to get a little uptight when challenged, said Shideler, who knows from personal experience: “I’ve been told in no uncertain terms to shut my mouth and mind my own business. One fellow threatened to punch my lights out.”