Toronto police seized over 1,000 permits and charged over 900 people with violations relating to misuse of permits last year. (Photo by Phil Witmer)
By Phil Witmer
Toronto police have begun a new initiative to stop the misuse of accessible parking permits.
The two-week-long program launched Monday and is known as “Abuse It and Lose It”.
It will attempt to lower infractions caused by parking in disabled spots without a permit or using a counterfeit permit to park, among other violations, police said in a media release.
Operations Supervisor for Parking Enforcement Brian Moniz told Humber News that a greater number of staff would be allocated to make more charges.
“We’re putting a lot more resources into areas where we’re getting a lot of complaints. It’ll be a large level of saturation patrol in high-risk areas,” said Moniz.
According to the release, police last year seized over 1,000 permits and charged over 900 people with violations.
Moniz credits the increase of parking enforcement staff with the numbers but also notes that rising prices for public parking are also behind them.
“In City Hall, the parking garage is $300 a month. [People] commit the infractions to avoid paying for parking and to park close to where they’re going,” said Moniz.
Moniz says that he hopes “Abuse It and Lose It” will increase public awareness of parking violations and abuse of disabled parking permits.