I am still wondering why the city of Vancouver discontinued the disabled-parking patrol. It did not cost the city much money as it was all volunteers who wrote citations of $250 to $500. The practice was to take two pictures, one from the rear showing the license plate and the disabled parking sign, the other through the front windshield showing there was not a disabled-parking placard hanging from the rear-view mirror or on the dashboard so the citations could not be denied. In my opinion, it kept the disabled-parking spaces open for those who needed them.
I was on the patrol and really enjoyed helping the disabled and was thanked quite often. Sometimes we would be writing a citation and a person would come out of the store, show us their placard and identification and because they forgot to display their placard, we would then cancel the citation.
The Feb. 20 Columbian story “Disabled-parking dilemma” reported there were more disabled people and the city needed more parking spaces. It’s simple — put the patrol back as active. Not only help the disabled but make the city a little money. I do not think the patrol should have been stopped anyway because a lot of people use the disabled spaces illegally.
John Yount
Vancouver