Overview
People who are issued permanent disability parking placards by the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) are allowed to obtain an unlimited number of replacements without recertifying eligibility. RMV must cancel the existing placard when it provides a replacement; however, when it cancels a placard in its system, it does not necessarily recover the placard. In addition, there is no way for law enforcement to determine whether a placard is canceled unless, for example, an officer observes a driver using a disability parking placard and then asks the person to demonstrate that the placard holder is in the vehicle or that the driver expects to pick that person up. Consequently, it is possible for a potentially ineligible person to use a disability parking placard unless and until a law enforcement official seizes it.
Further, RMV does not perform any analyses of the number of replacement placards issued to any one person to identify potential misuse. In reviewing RMV’s data regarding replacement placards, we found approximately 8,000 people to whom RMV issued replacement permanent placards during our audit period, as shown in the table below.
Replacements of Permanent Disability Parking Placards
|
Number of Replacements Per Person |
Number of People with Replacements |
Total Number of Replacements |
|
1 |
5,182 |
5,182 |
|
2 |
2,752 |
5,504 |
|
Subtotal |
7,934 |
10,686 |
|
3 |
418 |
1,254 |
|
4 |
58 |
232 |
|
5–8 |
16 |
93 |
|
9+ |
3 |
29 |
|
Subtotal |
495 |
1,608 |
|
Total |
8,429 |
12,294 |
As the table shows, most people who received replacement placards were issued either one or two replacements. However, 495 people were issued three or more replacement placards during the audit period, representing more than one placard per year. An even greater concern is that one person received 9 replacement placards during those two and half years and two people received 10 replacement placards each. Allowing people to receive multiple replacement placards increases the number of permanent placards potentially in use by people other than those to whom they were issued. Unless people surrender found placards or enforcement officials seize them, those reported as lost or stolen are available for misuse. We believe that RMV should consider routinely monitoring and analyzing its data regarding replacement placards and investigate, and/or notify the applicable local law enforcement agencies of, placards that could be abused.
| Date published: | September 6, 2018 |
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