Oak Brook service officer continues to write $600 tickets for unauthorized use of handicapped placards

[#Drennn.]

usiness continues to be strong for Terry Hill, the Oak Brook Police Department community service officer who wrote 44 tickets in a three-month period in 2018 to people using someone else’s placard while parking in a designated handicapped space.

He followed up writing 45 such tickets in the next three-month period, which ended Jan. 15.

“I’m disappointed and surprised at how many people knowingly misuse disability parking placards,” said deputy police chief Jason Cates.

He said the unlawful use of handicapped parking placards could result in a $600 fine and a suspension of driving privileges.

 

“The parking program for persons with disabilities is a vital program for many Illinois residents,” Cates said.

Hill wrote 44 such tickets, from July 14 to Oct. 15, 2018, and said about three-quarters were issued at Costco, 1901 22nd St., which has 17 designated handicapped parking spaces.

He wrote 45 such tickets from Oct. 16 through Jan. 15. Cates said 13 of those were at Costco, and 17 were issued at Shops at Oak Brook, 2155 22nd St.

Hill is the only Oak Brook officer who has written tickets for unauthorized use of a handicapped placard, something that has become a pet project for him.

 

“I’m glad he’s doing it,” Cates said. “It really bothers me when someone who hasn’t been issued their own handicapped placard takes away a space from someone who has a placard and should be able to park there.”

Hill said earlier that his motivation to begin writing the tickets came from an incident in July 2018 in which he saw someone at Oakbrook Center speed into a handicapped space and was able to tell by looking at the placard that it didn’t belong to the driver. A designation inside a box on the placard indicates if it was issued to a man or a woman.

He also said that when he suspects a placard being used was not issued to the person using it, he asks that person if it belongs to them, and 99 percent of the time they say it does, when that is not the case.

Several Oak Brook officers have written tickets for people without a placard parking in a handicapped space, which can carry a $250 fine. Oak Brook officers issued 49 such tickets in the three months ending Jan. 15, compared to 45 during the previous three-month period.