In California, a Fight Against Faux Disabilities and Fake Permits

[Elmore Furth]

If you've seen apparently healthy people with handicapped parking placards parking in handicapped parking slots, thank California for forging the way.

In San Francisco... where roughly 55,000 people hold the (disabled) placards, the authorities seized more than 2,000 in the last fiscal year, for counterfeiting, use by the wrong person and other reasons. And the city is on an even more torrid pace of confiscations this year.

The problem has gotten so bad that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law last week a measure that increased fines for violators - to up to $1,000 for repeated offenses. It also loosened the hands of parking control officers (a k a meter monitors) to hand out tickets.

www.handicappedfraud.org, contains hundreds of testimonials from drivers across the country who suspect others of not playing by the rules.

Still, like with many things car-related, California probably has the most culprits. More than 2.5 million Californians - roughly 10 percent of the state's drivers - have a disabled placard, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, nearly triple the number that held the privilege in 1994. And while many are no doubt legitimate placards, parking experts say anecdotal evidence also suggests widespread fraud.



In California, a Fight Against Faux Disabilities and Fake Permits