Underground Voice LA

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. 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 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. 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. 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 “crackdown” promised by the D.M.V. According to the D.M.V. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.