Q: Renee Chapman of Murrieta said she and her husband have noticed as they drive around Murrieta, Menifee and Temecula that there are an unusually high number of drivers with disabled license plates or placards on their vehicles – and they’re not senior citizens. She said these drivers are younger people in luxury cars, new cars, large customized trucks and muscle cars. Chapman said they drive aggressively, speed, fail to yield, and “demonstrate all manner of poor driving habits.”

“What has changed?” she asked. “What am I missing? Is it really so easy to qualify as a disabled person now and get one of those plates or placards? Are we simply living in an area with a lot of disabled persons (who are terrible drivers), or is there something else at play here?”

A: The requirements to qualify for a disabled driver license plate or parking placard have not changed. It’s possible people are committing fraud.

“The abuse of disabled person parking placards in California is a concern to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. It is important to point out that not all disabilities are visible and the individual assigned the placard is required to carry an accompanying registration card with them to prove they are legally authorized to use the placard,” DMV spokesperson Ronald Ongtoaboc said.

The requirements to apply for a placard have not changed, he said. A driver must submit a Disabled Person Parking Placard Form Application, which includes having a licensed physician, surgeon, chiropractor, optometrist, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or certified nurse midwife complete and sign the Medical Provider’s Certification of Disability section of the application.

It’s illegal to lend your placard to someone else, forge a medical professional’s signature to get a disabled driver’s placard, use someone else’s placard, have a counterfeit placard or license plates, lie to obtain a placard or license plates, or to alter a placard or the registration card.

The DMV tries to cut down on fraud but it’s fairly widespread. In December 2022, the DMV sent renewal letters to more than 2 million disabled drivers who needed to provide a signature to renew their placards by June 30, 2023, to comply with a new state law which requires placard holders who have had their placard for six years or longer to return a signed renewal notice to the DMV to remain eligible. Longtime placard holders no longer automatically receive new placards in the mail every two years.

The DMV said last year there were over 2.3 million active disabled placards statewide after the department cracked down on fraudulent activity by invoking the new renewal law; almost 350,000 placards (or about 15%) were not renewed.

The DMV works with local governments and police to reduce fraudulent use of the placards through enforcement measures, public awareness campaigns and technology to verify the legitimacy of parking permits, but many cheaters are not caught.

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“While the DMV doesn’t have an estimate of how many people have fraudulently used a disabled parking placard or license, in 2024 the DMV’s Investigations Division has conducted numerous DPP enforcement operations, resulting in approximately 1,100 cases being investigated for fraud or misuse,” Ongtoaboc said.

You can report suspected fraud through an online complaint form or by contacting a local DMV Investigations office. Reports may be submitted anonymously. You can also call the non-emergency phone number of your local police department to report suspected fraud.

Do you commute to work in the Inland Empire? Spend a lot of time in your vehicle? Have questions about driving, freeways, toll roads or parking? If so, write or call On the Road and we’ll try to answer your questions. Please include your question or issue, name, city of residence, phone number and email address. Write [email protected] or call us at our new phone number, 951-368-9995.