WATCHDOG REPORT: What can be done to stop parking cheaters? A lot

Melissa Haneline
The Post and Courier

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The Post and Courier Watchdog team recently hit the streets of Charleston to gauge the abuse of handicapped parking system. Watch »

It's not easy nabbing people who illegally use placards for the handicapped.

Former Charleston Police Chief Reuben Greenberg got so fed up in the early 1990s that he deputized a citizens group to go after parking cheaters.

Greenberg's placard posse has long since disbanded, and the problem has only gotten more out of hand.

Last year, city parking enforcement officers wrote more than 1,000 citations for motorists who altered placards or misused them in other ways.

But a recent Post and Courier Watchdog investigation shows that large numbers of able-bodied people downtown and elsewhere still use placards for the handicapped to park in metered spots and garages for free.

In doing so, these scammers are bilking the city out of thousands of dollars in revenue and taking spots designed to help people with legitimate disabilities.

What can be done?

Law enforcement and disability experts say quite a bit.

Change state law to nix free parking privileges

South Carolina law requires that disabled people with a placard or license plate for the handicapped be allowed to park for free in a metered or timed parking space.

The roots of this law stretch back to the 1970s when lawmakers tried to help disabled Vietnam veterans with financial problems, said Janet Schumacher, disabilities issues coordinator for city of Charleston.

But she and other advocates for disabled think it's time to update this law.

They argue that the purpose of having parking spaces for the disabled should be to remove physical barriers so disabled people can get around more easily, not to give them a free parking pass.

"Just because you are handicapped doesn't mean you are poor," said Melinda Anderson, parking administrator at the Medical University of South Carolina.

As parking gets more expensive, the incentive to cheat will only grow, she and others say.

A space in a private lot around the medical complex can cost as much as $150 a month.

Anthony Dunbar, MUSC's public safety director, offered one idea: Limit free parking privileges to the maximum amount of time available on a meter.

Clarify who should get the placards

Lawmakers are considering a state law that would spell out in more detail what constitutes a disability.

It passed the Senate last year but is stalled in a House committee.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Vincent Sheheen, said he often hears from constituents about the problem and believes some of the abuse stems from the vague definitions in state law.

"It's a constant problem with people abusing handicap parking. Right now, there is no way to tell if that person is supposed to have it."

A newspaper review of recent applications found that people applying for handicapped-parking placards cite a range of ailments, including heart disease, amputations, rheumatoid arthritis, hip replacements and lupus.

Temporary tags were issued for disabilities such as an injured foot, abdominal pain and pregnancy complications, the newspaper found.

When confronted, many seemingly able-bodied placard holders described vague disabilities.

Moments after lifting large tables from his vehicle, which had a kayak on its roof, a muscular vendor in the City Market explained that he had several strokes and an equilibrium problem.

Another vendor said she received her placard because she had "high stress" from all the parking enforcement around the area.

Some states have tightened requirements in recent years.

In Delaware, for instance, motorists are eligible only if they can't walk 200 feet without stopping to rest, can't walk safely without a wheelchair or other "assistive device," use portable oxygen, or have a severe cardiac condition.

Dunbar said there ought to be penalties for doctors who approve placards for people who don't really need them. "Some doctors are more generous than others on signing off on those."

Fix Department of Motor Vehicles database

The Post and Courier's Watchdog investigation revealed that the Department of Motor Vehicles does not maintain a database that links placards to license plates, a simple tool that could help law enforcement officers target potential abusers.

On some streets around MUSC, nearly every metered space is occupied by someone using a placard for the handicapped, Dunbar said.

But law enforcement officers have no easy way to determine if motorists using the placards actually are registered as having a disability — or whether they're borrowing a placard from a friend or family member.

That's because 'DMV does not have a readily accessible database on hang tags,' Dunbar said. "You have to contact DMV and it takes several hours." (In North Carolina, law enforcement officers have instant access to placard numbers, license plate and registration information.)

South Carolina officials could easily make this information available. It did so at the newspaper's request.

The Department of Motor Vehicles provided the newspaper with a list of all the placards issued in the tri-county area and license plates associated with these hang tags.

When Schumacher, the city's disability coordinator, learned this, she said she would love to have such a database.

With this information, city parking enforcement officers could focus on motorists whose license tags don't jibe with the registration numbers on their placards. A mismatch is often a sign that someone is using another person's placard.

Improve state records

An examination of DMV's data revealed a number of holes.

Though the state asks applicants to provide license-tag numbers on forms, hundreds of people left that space blank.

Despite the incomplete forms, DMV still issued the placards. That's because some disabled people may not have their own cars, said Beth Parks, DMV communications director.

The agency gets about 100 handicap parking applications a day, and DMV employees simply scan the documents and enter a limited amount of data from the applications into a computer before tossing out the paperwork.

"I don't think we do anything to verify each one of them," Parks said.

Another hole: The state doesn't enter physician information into the database, making it impossible to track whether some physicians sign off on bogus placards, turn in unusually large numbers, or look for other signs of fraud.

In Boston, for instance, investigators recently learned that dozens of placards had been issued to people who had died, prompting Massachusetts to crosscheck placard and death records.

Parks said the agency periodically requests death records from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

But she wasn't sure exactly how often the agency gets this information, or if the death records were actually checked against the database of placard holders.

Issue one placard per license tag

Applicants now can get two placards, making it easier for legitimately disabled people to lend or give away an extra placard.

At least one state, Delaware, issues just one placard per person, though residents can make a written request for a second placard at a later date.

Change the placards

Some argue that the placards are too easy to counterfeit or alter.

Sheheen's bill would require the state to issue placards with separate photo ID cards. It would also require that the user's sex and date of birth appear on the placard itself. He said DMV officials grumbled that such changes would cause administrative burdens, but he told them, "that's what they are there for."

Some states already put photographs on the placards to prevent non-disabled people from using them.

In Massachusetts, placards come with photographs and special security sleeves that enable people to conceal the photo for privacy. State law requires the owner to remove the sleeve if a law enforcement official asks.

The newspaper's Watchdog investigation found another common problem with placards: people who tape over or alter expiration dates. North Carolina plugged that hole by issuing placards with perforated expiration dates.

A second Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Glenn Reese of Spartanburg County would require placards to include a photo and drivers' license number or state-issued ID number.

"We wanted to put some teeth into it, so people wouldn't abuse it," he said. "People who are obviously not handicapped are using them."

But Harriet McBryde Johnson, a Charleston lawyer who is disabled, said she had concerns about having a photo on the placard. She said that criminals could use them to target victims.

Step up enforcement

Dunbar has gone to great lengths to nab parking violators.

Tipped that a hospital employee was using a placard to park for free, his officers did several stakeouts, complete with photos and video surveillance.

They cited two motorists, and the amount of time and effort involved hardly justified the effort, he said.

County and city parking officials believe that they've curtailed much of the problem in parking garages by employing a low-tech solution: checking a placard user's birth date on his or her driver's license against the placard expiration date. They are supposed to match.

Bill Bradee, technical services supervisor for Charleston County, said that since parking garage attendants started checking about a year ago, validations for handicapped-parking spaces have dropped by about two-thirds.

The city also uses this verification method in its parking garages.

Bradee said parking garage attendants get an earful from motorists who don't like being asked to prove their disability.

That's one reason why MUSC probably wouldn't do this in its garages, said Anderson, the university's parking administrator. The institution serves so many legitimately disabled people that challenging patients "is not good business."

Education

Some people may be abusing the placards because they don't know any better.

State law says it's illegal "for any person who is not transporting a handicapped person to exercise the parking privileges granted handicapped persons."

In other words, if you're taking a handicapped person to a store or the hospital, you can use the placard, but if the disabled person isn't with you, you're cheating.

In the end, instilling a sense of guilt in people may help the most. These parking cheaters hurt the truly disabled, Schumacher said, and putting them on notice that people are watching might be the best deterrent.

NEXT: THE PROBLEM THROUGH THE EYES OF A DISABLED PERSON AND PARKING METER JAMMERS

Contact Ron Menchaca at rmenchaca@postandcourier.com or 937-5724. Contact Tony Bartelme at tbartelme@postandcourier.com or 937-5554.