Curbing Abuse of Placards

It isn’t just the disabled who are upset about the 14 current and former UCLA football players accused of filing false applications to obtain handicap parking placards.

If they’re guilty, this is not only an affront to the disabled. It’s offensive to the rest of us who have agonizingly searched for a parking space but passed up the handicap spots out of respect for the rules.

Surprisingly, it isn’t that difficult to obtain a placard through false pretenses, if you’re determined to break the law.

The UCLA scandal was discovered on a fluke, by a campus security guard. The Department of Motor Vehicles rarely snags such lawbreakers on its own. True, any doctor signing your application must provide his or her medical number and phone number. But the DMV has little staff to review applications.

But DMV spokesman Evan Nossoff offers another good reason why the agency doesn’t review in more detail.

“We don’t want to put up any barriers between us and the disabled. To make it more difficult to obtain a disabled placard is a disservice to those who really need it.”

About 1 million DMV disabled placards are in current issue--nearly 85,000 in Orange County.

Setting up a wider investigative system for applicants, Nossoff said, “would just slow down the system to a crawl. That’s not fair to the 99.9% who need it and apply properly.”

You can pick up an application (Reg 195) at any DMV center. A brochure attached to each says the DMV seeks help from the public in reporting any handicap parking abuse. Nossoff tells of a sharp-eyed patron not long ago who spotted valets stealing disabled parking placards at a Beverly Hills restaurant.

But the greatest abuse, police say, continues to be illegal parking in handicap spots. Huntington Beach Police Lt. Lloyd Edwards says the number of handicap parking tickets are up about 20% from just two years ago. “You’d think the size of the fine [$270] would be enough to scare them off,” one Buena Park police officer said. “But we’re nailing people every day.”

Lt. Ted Labahn, traffic officer for the Anaheim Police Department, said one recent small-business owner squawked for getting fined; he’d been using the handicap spot at his store to park his own vehicle. But it’s my store, he argued.

“Sorry; we don’t don’t make exceptions like that,” Labahn said. “We enforce all the laws.”

The police and the DMV both urge: Don’t hesitate to report such lawbreakers--the police don’t view it as a bothersome call. Labahn said Anaheim police consider it a priority.

“One woman calls us all the time,” Labahn said. “She wanted to know once if it would be OK to put her wheelchair behind the vehicle until we could get there. We told her that wasn’t a good idea; she might escalate a situation. But we are happy to respond to her calls.”

My own pet peeve is healthy people who misuse disabled placards because someone disabled in their family has been issued one. That’s illegal too.

If you know anyone who does that, you might warn them: Some officers are not only fining them, they’re confiscating the placard.

The best thing is for all of us to obey the law. Even if you’re on a busy campus where parking is at a premium. The UCLA 14, if convicted, face up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

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Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.