SF targets disabled parking abusers

A crackdown on disabled placard abuse is taking place in San Francisco in a collaborative effort with The City’s transportation agency and Police Department.

Officials with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation said Tuesday at its Board of Directors meeting that it has been working with SFPD in coordinated sting enforcement operations of disabled parking placard abuse.

SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin said:

“We’ve been doing a lot of placard checks, including personal contacts which have resulted in some confiscations of placards and associated citations.”

Last November, Reiskin said he spoke with Mayor Ed Lee, who was concerned about those abusing disabled parking placards, and making disabled parking spaces unavailable for those who truly need them.

The SFMTA and SFPD began its enforcement operations that November, and checked more than 600 disabled parking placards while making 68 personal contacts.

In November, the SFMTA confiscated three disabled parking placards, including one placard where the owner had been deceased for more than 60 days, according to the transit agency.

The transit agency did not confiscate any placards in December, but did confiscate one in January that was expired while another placard was surrendered to the transit agency.

According to the SFMTA’s fines and fees schedule, misuse of a disabled parking placard can land person a $875 fine.

Reiskin said:

“We will continue to do that work to make sure people who are legitimately using the placards can actually find parking spaces.”

Investigators with the California Department of Motor Vehicles have also been cracking down on drivers abusing disabled parking placards statewide, including in San Francisco.

From July 1, 2017 to January 1, 2018, investigators have issued 1,511 citations to people fraudulently using the placards during 172 enforcement operations.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.