State To Crack Down On Illegal Use Of Handicapped Placards On Black Friday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Shopping mall parking spaces migt be at a premium on Black Friday, but you should not be tempted to wrongly pull your car into one marked for handicapped drivers.
Illinois Secretary of State's Office Police planned their annual crackdown on the misuse of handicapped parking spots, including enforcement missions in at the Oak Brook and Woodfield Malls in the Chicago area and several downstate shopping centers.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said, for him, it "violates human decency" for someone to take up a handicapped parking spot when he or she shouldn't.
White's liaison to the handicapped community, Bill Bogdan, said the crackdown is not meant so much to be punitive as it is to get people to follow the law. He said each year seems to be getting better. Last year, there were more than 90 tickets issued to people illegally in handicapped parking spots during the crackdown, while the year before was well over 100.
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Besides Oak Brook and Schaumburg, Illinois Secretary of State Police planned to patrol mall parking lots in Champaign, Peoria, Fairview Heights, Marion, Moline, Rockford and Springfield.
Punishments for those found guilty of misusing handicapped parking range from fines of $350 to $2,500, and could include the loss of driving privileges for up to a year.
Investigator Glenn Florkow said, many times, people think it's okay park in a handicap zone when they shouldn't, because they were "just running in and running out."
"Other individuals just indicate that they're using their grandmother's or grandfather's placard, because ... their ankle is hurting today, they're not feeling well," he said.
A couple years ag, Florkow caught corrupt former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano wrongly using his mother-in-law's handicapped parking placard.
